Jackson spoils Quins’ party

PADDY JACKSON helped London Irish storm the palace of the champions as the Exiles won just their second game of the league campaign.

Jackson was not the fly-half a sell-out crowd had bought tickets to see but Harlequin Marcus Smith was rested after his heroics for England.

Irish’s second win in the Premiership, to add to three draws, was not built on the razzledazzle usually seen in this corner of London. Instead, it was the cornerstone of rock-solid defence mixed with a dash of emotion.

In one frantic period, when Irish held back waves of Quins attack, it was Jackson who pulled off the key tackle on Tyrone Green to stem the tide.

When Irish got into the red zone they capitalised with scores from hooker Agustin Creevy, lock Rob Simmons and replacement scrum-half Ben White.

London Irish head coach Les Kiss said: ‘It was a great derby game and to get away from a draw is nice. Emotion is a massive part of the game and that came through tonight.’

Harlequins, who led 14-10 at the break, ran in three tries with Oscar Beard scoring twice and Luke Northmore scything through in the 36th minute.

Irish kept knocking them out of their attacking stride, however, and they also had to deal with losing fly-half Tommy Allan, just before the break with a shoulder problem.

A superb late try by replacement Billy Searle helped earn Worcester a 24-24 draw with Newcastle at Kingston Park.

Fin Smith’s converison tied up the scores after Worcester had trailed four minutes from time.