London Irish inflict 16th straight defeat on London Welsh at the Kassam Stadium

Alex Lewington: Ran in three tries as Irish inflicted further misery on London Welsh

An Alex Lewington hat-trick condemned London Welsh to a 16th successive defeat as their miserable season continued with a 50-12 defeat to London Irish.

The result emphasised the gulf between Welsh and the other sides in the Aviva Premiership as they could not make a game of it against the side placed immediately above them. This was probably Welsh's last chance of adding to their solitary point with their remaining six league matches all against sides placed seventh or higher.

Irish led 38-7 at half-time before taking off a number of key players to allow the opposition to make a better fist of it in the second half.

Irish scored tries through Lewington (three), Tom Fowlie, Matt Parr, Andrew Fenby and there were two more from Shane Geraghty, who also added four conversions. Chris Noakes kicked a second-half conversion.

Welsh replied with tries from James Tincknell and Taione Vea with one conversion by Will Robinson.

It took Irish only three minutes to score the first try. A clever kick from Geraghty pinned the Welsh in their own 22 and strong runs from Tom Guest and Ofisa Treviranus provided the platform for Lewington to force his way over.

Within two minutes, Irish were over again. A handling movement by the hosts broke down on the half-way line which allowed Fowlie to kick ahead and win the race for the touchdown.

However Welsh responded with an excellent try when a neat pass from Rob Lewis put Fonua though a big gap in the visitors' defence, with Tincknell on hand to collect the scoring pass.

Robinson converted but Irish scored their third try after only 17 minutes. Treviranus and Eamonn Sheridan put the home defence on the back foot, which allowed Geraghty to take advantage by strolling through a huge hole for a try which he converted for a 17-7 lead at end of the first quarter.

It was Geraghty who secured the bonus point for his team. An Irish throw on the home line had gone badly astray but Geraghty was alert to race onto the ball and brush aside some weak tackling for the fourth try.

Irish sealed the game before half-time with two tries. Firstly Parr finished from a line-out drive before Lewington beat a couple of defenders to send Fenby over, while Geraghty converted both for a 38-7 interval lead.

Early in the second half Lewington raced away for his second after a neat off-load from Guest.

Fenby was sin-binned for the Irish with the home side taking advantage when replacement Vea drove over from close range.

Welsh were the better side for the remainder of the match but - with the final movement of the game - Lewington evaded a couple of defenders to complete his hat-trick.