Match Centre: Pau 10-33 London Irish
Agustin Creevy scored two tries for London Irish
©Steve Haag Sports
Pau 10-33 London Irish, Stade du Hameau
Agustin Creevy and Olly Cracknell scored two tries apiece as London Irish trounced Pau 33-10 in their European Challenge Cup opener at Stade du Hameau.
Pau started the game with a huge setback as referee Sam Grove-White sin-binned Vincent Pinto for a deliberate knock on that also resulted in a penalty try for the Exiles.
The French side bounced back hard with Alexis Levron kicking a penalty goal in the 13th minute but with the numerical advantage on their side London Irish got their second try in the 19th minute with Creevy diving over at the back of a maul and Rory Jennings kicked the conversion to make it 3-14.
As Pau returned back to full strength, they tried to exert pressure on London Irish but could not quite convert it into points as the visitors finished the opening half with a 11-point lead.
London Irish extended their lead early in the second half with Creevy latching on to an unstoppable rolling maul to score his second in the 47th minute and Jennings followed with the extras to make it 3-21.
Pau again came back at Irish, but some superb individual efforts from Rob Simmons and Matt Williams were enough to stop an almost certain try.
Nevertheless, the home side eventually got their breakthrough in the 57th minute with Alexis Levron sneaked through the gap to touchdown cutting down the gap back to 11 points. The Exiles were in desperate search for a bonus point and it eventually came with six minutes left in the game with Cracknell going over to make it 10-26.
The final few minutes saw Jordan Joseph and Cracknell exchange tries as London Irish started their campaign with a 16-point victory.
Team line up:
Pau: Pinto; Barrett, Tutuila Vaea, Vatubua, Ikpefan; Dumoulin, Levron; Seneca, Barka, Yameogo, Ramsay, Metz, Hewat, Hamonou, Joseph.
Reserves: Delhommel, Bordenave, Van Dyk, Auradou, Puech, Daubagna, Harris, Carol.
London Irish: Parton; Stokes, Williams, Hepetema, Cinti; Jennings, White; Gigena, Marshall, Hoskins, Nott, Simmons (capt), Pearson, Gonzalez, Cracknell.
Reserves: Creevy, Goodrick-Clarke, Parker, Mafi, Cooke, Phipps, Jackson, Hassell-Collins
