LONDON Irish's dismal start to the Aviva Premiership season continued with a heavy 38-7 defeat against Harlequins at The Stoop on Saturday, writes Richard Ashton.

A Nick Evans penalty put the home side in front early on, and it took a brilliant Alex Lewington try to deny Ross Chisholm a try later in the half.

Harlequins did cross the whitewash courtesy of wing Tim Visser, who cut a beautiful inside line and collected an Evans pass to score. The New Zealand fly half added the extras to make it 10-0.

Irish defended valiantly towards the end of the first 40 minutes, and were able to hold on till half-time, but within eight minutes of the restart scrum-half Danny Care went over for another converted try.

Things got even worse for Exiles when the powerful Visser exploited some weak defence to bag his second of the afternoon, and he was then only denied a hat-trick by another outstanding Lewington tackle.

The Scotland international did complete his treble shortly after, however, beating two defenders to go in at the corner.

A miserable afternoon got even worse for Tom Coventry's men as Tom Cruse was sin-binned before Jack Clifford bundled his way over, substitute Ben Botica slotting the conversion to put Harlequins 38-0 ahead.

The visitors did manage a consolation try with the last play of the game, Halani Aulika burrowing over before Theo Brophy-Clews landed the kick, but in truth the pointless Irish side had been comprehensively outplayed.

London Irish host Edinburgh in the European Challenge Cup this coming Saturday (3pm).