London Irish 38-17 Worcester

London Irish (13) 38
Tries: Mapusua, Thorpe, Dermody, Hala'ufia, Hudson Cons: Homer 2 Pens: Homer 3

Worcester (10) 17
Tries: Rawlinson, Walker Con: Walker 2 Pen: Walker

James Hudson crosses for London Irish's final try of the afternoon

London Irish remained in the hunt for a play-off place with a comfortable win over Worcester at the Madejski Stadium.

The hosts were into a 11-0 lead in as many minutes through two Tom Homer penalties and a Seilala Mapusua try.

Lock Greg Rawlinson touched down for Worcester, but Richard Thorpe ensured a healthy half-time lead for the Exiles.

Irish were quickly into their stride again as Clarke Dermody trundled over before Christopher Hala'ufia bagged the bonus point with 30 minutes remaining.

London Irish head coach Toby Booth:
"We definitely deserved the scoreline, I'm just delighted for the boys and the people off the field.

"The facts are the facts, we've come second for a number of weeks by close margins and it's testament to the people involved, players and management, that we squeezed out a little more effort and energy.

"I like to think that this victory is for not just this week but for the last three weeks.

"The big difference today was the quality of our first phase. Rugby is a simple game, it's about quality of ball, speed of ball and keeping hold of the ball for long periods of time and the difference was that we could play at that pace for longer."

Worcester director of rugby Mike Ruddock:
"We made a poor start - that's our biggest disappointment.

"We had to chase the game again and were on the back foot. It does nothing for our confidence and we looked like a team low on confidence.

"We will relish the challenge (of Gloucester's visit on 22 March), the performance today did not reflect the training we put in. We need a big challenge, we can't hide from the challenges. The local derby is coming just at the right time."

London Irish: Homer, Thompstone, Seveali'i, Mapusua, Tagicakibau, Catt, Hodgson, Dermody, Coetzee, Skuse, Hudson,Johnson, Thorpe, Danaher, Hala'ufia.
Replacements: Hickey for Catt (73), Lalanne for Hodgson (73), Buckland for Coetzee (56), Roche for Johnson (61), Fisher for Thorpe (68), S. Armitage for Hala'ufia (59).
Not Used: Lea'aetoa.

Worcester: Latham, Gear, Luscombe, Rasmussen, Garvey, Walker, R. Powell, Mullan, Lutui, Morris, Rawlinson, Bowley, Talei, Sanderson, Horstmann.
Replacements: Benjamin for Gear (67), Carlisle for Garvey (34), Arr for R. Powell (64), Black for Lutui (56), Fortey for Morris (55), Kitchener for Rawlinson (67), Collins for Sanderson (50).

Att: 8,343

Referee: Tim Wigglesworth (RFU).