NICK Kennedy hailed one of London Irish’s “best attacking displays of the season” after his side ran in six tries in the opening half hour of their 39-10 St Patrick’s Party win against Cornish Pirates, writes Richard Ashton.

Exiles confirmed they will finish top of the Greene King IPA Championship table with a superb display which saw Ben Ransom score twice, and Topsy Ojo, David Paice, Sebastian De Chaves also dot down in a scintillating start.

And director of rugby Kennedy told the Chronicle: “The first 30 minutes might have been the best in attack, it was up there. But there are two sides of the ball and some of our defence this season has also been unbelievable.

“Clark Laidlaw’s come up with a couple of moves which worked really well and they were clinical finishes by Alex Lewington and Ben Ransom. They really backed themselves and it paid off.”

He continued: “Alex is getting better in training every week and his confidence is building. It was a big injury, but he came back straight into our biggest game at Yorkshire Carnegie and he was great. I think he’s going to really kick on to the end of the season.”

Despite their fast start, Irish then came under pressure for the remaining 50 minutes and Kennedy reflected: “There was one soft try. Senitiki knocked their player’s arm and the ball went forward and everyone stopped because it was a clear knock-on, but taking that out of the equation, I thought second half we actually defended really well.

“Credit to Pirates, they kept the ball really well and went through multiple phases. They tested our defence and we slipped off a few tackles which we need to improve on, but on the whole I thought out defence held firm despite having no ball in the second half.

“It was a real game of two halves, the first great for our attack and the second good for our defence. We’ve still got things to improve there.”

With his side guaranteed to finish top, Kennedy admitted there is still much to do ahead of the play-offs.

He concluded: “It’s nice to finish top, but we wanted to get to the semi-finals – that was everything. That was the plan and now it’s all about improving and getting ready. We’ve got a few big games still to come and we’re determined to play our best rugby and peak at the end of the year.”