London Irish thrash Rovigo in one-sided Challenge Cup encounter

A hat-trick of first-half tries from Topsy Ojo paved the way for London Irish to record a convincing 70-14 victory against Rovigo in their opening European Challenge Cup match this afternoon.

The winger crossed over three times for his team in a one-sided affair at the Madejski Stadium, while Myles Dorrian also added to the hosts' scoring in the opening 40 minutes.

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Dorrian was also on hand to successfully kick over five times before the interval, and matters got even worse for the Italian outfit two minutes after the restart when Eoin Griffin touched down to extend Irish's advantage.

Luke Mahoney provided some respite on 48 minutes when he found Rovigo's first try of the contest, although there was still plenty of time for the Exiles to move back up through the gears.

Three tries in eight minutes from Leo Halavatau, Kieran Low and Tom Guest saw Irish open up their hefty lead once more, with Dorrian maintaining his perfect conversation rate.

Daniel Leo and James Short added two more tries late on to take the tally up to 10 for the hosts, although Andrea de Marchi did manage to reduce the deficit fractionally crossing over at the death.