NICK Kennedy hailed his London Irish side’s defence after they recorded a 29-6 victory against Championship side Ealing Trailfinders at Hazlewood on Saturday.

Tries from Ofisa Treviranus, Ciaran Hearn, Ben Meehan and Napolioni Nalaga did the majority of the damage for Exiles, who managed to keep the visitors from crossing their try line.

Kennedy said: “To shut out an attacking team like Ealing is a big thumbs up to the way we defended.”

“The boys have been working hard over the last few weeks, specifically on our defence and I thought we were very patient in that department when we were put under a lot of pressure 25 minutes into the game.

“I’ve watched Ealing with a lot of interest since January and they have put 50 points on teams on a regular basis. I thought the likes of Mike Coman, Ofisa Treviranus and Ben Franks stood out in defence.”

Treviranus crashed over off the back of a driving maul on five minutes, Tommy Bell’s conversion making it 7-0.

Peter Lydon cut the gap with a penalty, but shortly after Hearn crossed for Irish’s second try.

A second Lydon penalty came before the break, while the impressive Coman was also yellow carded to turn the pressure up on Exiles.

However, Irish came out firing after the break and Meehan worked his way over before a Bell conversion and penalty made it 22-6.

Nalaga rounded off the scoring with the kind of trademark finish which could make him a hit with supporters, smashing through the Ealing defence before Bell added the extras to set the seal on another encouraging display for Exiles.

Kennedy concluded “We’re building our game nicely as we continue our preparations for the first game of the season. We’ve got a few things to work on and we’ll look at the video to see where we need to improve.”

London Irish are due to finish their pre-season with a trip to Richmond on Saturday (3pm), before opening the Aviva Premiership season against Harlequins a week later.