London Irish lose again

London Irish are still without a win this season as they were outclassed by Stade Francais in their opening European Conference…

London Irish are still without a win this season as they were outclassed by Stade Francais in their opening European Conference game at Sunbury. The exiles found the early going tough against a side that recently received a massive £2.6 million injection from a local Paris businessman.

The visitors scored two early tries and looked set for a runaway victory before Niall Woods and Niall Hogan both went over to close their-half time lead to just two points.

London Irish came out strongly after the break showing all the commitment missing from their opening two league games.

Well-worked tries by Conor O'Shea and Gary Halpin put them back on track, but it was merely a false dawn.

Stade Francais hit back with three tries in just 10 minutes, avoiding half-hearted tackles to find gaping holes in the Irish defence.

  • Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date

  • What’s making headlines in the rugby world? Listen to The Counter Ruck podcast with Nathan Johns

  • Sign up for push alerts to get the best breaking news, analysis and comment delivered to your phone