London Irish, already relegated after a disappointing season, were overwhelmed by an Old Albanian side which took virtually all the scoring opportunities on offer on a day where the elements and the pitch made for open rugby from start to finish.

Vice-captain Dan Watt scored over half the OA points with four of the nine tries and seven conversions. This morale-boosting performance should hearten the side before the visit of Henley next week. Henley themselves notched ten tries against Guernsey but gave away a bonus point in the process.

Albanians were two goals to the good courtesy of Watt and Tobias Munday before Richard Townsend crossed for the solitary hosts’ try. Much of the rest of the game proved one-way traffic but in heroic fashion Irish never gave up.

Too much power in the tight phases and too much guile in broken play meant much of the afternoon was spent in desperate defence by the men in green, Albanians gradually drawing away despite every effort to stem the tide.

Charlie Hughes, Alex Ricci and Luke Barber were the other men who crossed the LI whitewash, Morgan Thompson notching the first conversion.

Briann Quinn,

Press & Publicity