Leicester 35-3 London Irish

MATCH SUMMARY Leicester (18) 35 Tries: Healey, Kay, Chuter, Holford Cons: Goode (3) Pens: Goode (3) London Irish (3) 3 Pen: Everitt

Leicester overcame the absence of a dozen international players to beat London Irish at Welford Road.

Austin Healey, Ben Kay, George Chuter and Michael Holford touched down for the Tigers with Andy Goode adding three conversions and three penalties.

Irish had two tries disallowed and their only points came from an early Barry Everitt penalty.

The Exiles have now won only one of 20 matches at Welford Road while it was Leicester's first win in three games.

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Leicester coach Pat Howard:
"Ben Kay was in charge of organising our lineout and he made a major statement," he said after the 35-3 win.

"Captain Austin Healey deserves all the accolades he gets for bonding the team.

"We've lost Martin Johnson, Martin Corry and Julian White, but our remaining established players have all come to the fore."

London Irish coach Brian Smith:
"We thought we'd scored two good tries and we were desperately disappointed they weren't given but it wouldn't have been enough.

"We expected Leicester to be very professional and physical and they dominated the tackle area.

"We had our chances early on but they were very worthy winners."

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Leicester: Vesty; Lloyd, Hipkiss, Cornwell, Smith; Goode, Healey (capt); Moreno, Chuter, Morris; Hamilton, Kay; Johnson, Jennings, B Deacon.
Replacements: Rabeni for Lloyd (59), Broadfoot for Cornwell (70), Cole for Healey (70), Buckland for Chuter (70), Holford for Morris (70), Abraham for Jennings (54).
Not Used: Croft.

Sin bin: Johnson (58).

London Irish: Flutey; Staniforth, Penney, Catt, Bishop; Everitt, Willis; Hatley, Coetzee, Rautembach; Casey, Kennedy; Roche, Danaher, Murphy.
Replacements: Horak for Catt (40), Hodgson for Willis (51), Collins for Hatley (51), Russell for Coetzee (64), Skuse for Rautembach (59), Strudwick for Kennedy (64), Leguizamon for Murphy (46).

Sin bin: Russell (68).

Att: 16,815

Referee: Roy Maybank (Kent)