Premiership: London Irish 20-17 Worcester - Paddy Jackson penalty gives Exiles win

Paddy Jackson's penalty earned London Irish their fifth Premiership win of the season

Paddy Jackson landed the longest penalty of the Premiership season from 61 yards to pinch victory for London Irish against Worcester.

Tries from Ben Meehan and Steve Mafi gave Irish a 17-3 half-time lead.

But Worcester had all the possession and Niall Annett and Justin Clegg scored after the break to bring them level with 10 minutes remaining.

Irish were forced to play many of those final minutes with 14 men but survived for Jackson's hefty boot to win it.

Worcester, who have not won since the opening round, had the chance to win it as winger Tom Howe escaped up the right wing, but Billy Searle could not take his inside pass for the winning try.

It summed up Worcester's day as they were too inaccurate to put points on the board, enjoying 64 phases in the Irish 22, and slipped to a 10th defeat of the season to remain bottom of the table.

Irish climbed to fifth with their fifth win, built on an immense defensive performance led by flanker Blair Cowan who made a staggering 35 tackles - the most from one player in a Premiership match.

In stark contrast to their opposition, Irish struck when they had front-foot ball as Jackson floated an inviting pass for Ollie Hassell-Collins to make ground up the left wing and flicked a one-handed offload in-field to scrum-half Meehan.

Soon after, Mafi muscled his way over from close range for the hosts' second try.

Worcester finally made their possession count eight minutes after half-time as centre Ashley Beck was put through a gaping hole at the back of a line-out, passed inside to Matt Kvesic who put Annett in for a try on his 100th game for Worcester.

But it was another 20 minutes before Worcester could score again as several sieges on the Irish line were repelled before at last, with Nick Phipps in the sin-bin, second-row Clegg spun to the line from short range.

Momentum was with Worcester but, with five minutes remaining, Irish used some rare possession to work their way to halfway and force a penalty that Jackson belted over to win the game.

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney:

"It was a magnificent defensive effort from the boys.

"Blair [Cowan] showed what the club means to him as he tackled himself to a standstill and was cramping up at the end so we had no option but to take him off.

"Worcester were very good at retaining the ball and we couldn't relieve the pressure but we will enjoy the win as it's against a side we have a poor record against.

"I believe we've only won two of our last six fixtures against them."

Worcester head coach Jonathan Thomas:

"It's difficult to know what to say as it's the same narrative every week.

"We had over 70% possession and territory and had many opportunities to score but didn't take them.

"We conceded 18 turnovers and some of the fundamentals were not there but we are working incredibly hard in training on our execution in the red zone.

"We showed last week against Bristol that we can compete against the best but we can't get the monkey off our back and get over the line.

"Our team spirit is good so we just have to keep working hard at it."

London Irish: Stokes; Loader, Rona, Brophy-Clews, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, Meehan; Goodrick-Clarke, Creevy, Chawatama, Mafi, Simmons, Rogerson (capt), Cowan, Tuisue.

Replacements: Cornish, Gigena, Hoskins, Nott, Donnell, Phipps, Joseph, Homer.

Worcester: David; Humphreys, Venter, Beck, Howe; Searle, Hougaard; Waller, Annett, Carey, A Kitchener, Clegg, Hill (capt), Kvesic, Batley.

Replacements: Miller, M Thomas, Schonert, Dodd, du Preez, Simpson, Smith, O Morris.

Referee: Luke Pearce.

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