Premiership: Leicester Tigers 47-28 London Irish - Tigers maintain lead at top

Nemani Nadolo's double took his season try tally to eight

Leicester Tigers stayed 12 points clear at the top of the Premiership with a seven-try win over 14-man London Irish.

Nemani Nadolo and Matt Scott tries put Tigers 12-10 up after Benhard Janse van Rensburg's early opener before Irish lost wing Curtis Rona to a red card.

Harry Potter's try and a penalty try gave Leicester a 26-16 half-time lead.

Harry Arundell's score cut the lead to 26-21, but Tommy Reffell, Nadolo and Chris Ashton's first Tigers try sealed victory before Cornish's late reply.

Leicester have been invincible at Mattioli Woods Welford Road this season with 10 straight league wins, and have now beaten Irish 38 times in the league - more than any other Premiership opponent.

Tigers can wrap up a Premiership play-off place with victory over Exeter in their next league outing, while Irish remain in the hunt, three points outside the top four in sixth.

The hosts did not have it all their own way against an Irish side who arrived on a four-match unbeaten run and with an impressive away record at top-four sides this season - with wins at defending champions Quins and Exeter and a draw at Saracens.

Janse van Rensburg crashed over for his eighth try of the campaign inside two minutes to cap a fast Irish start, but Tigers were level with their first real possession as Nadolo barged through the Irish defence.

Irish maintained their adventurous approach, but it cost them when Scott showed good hands and balance to intercept a pass and race away for a try out of nothing.

Chris Ashton celebrated his first try for Leicester - and his 90th in the Premiership

A close contest looked on as Jackson cut the gap to 12-10, but the game turned with Rona's red card just before the half-hour for a high tackle on Jacob Wiese.

Within seconds, Nadolo's skilful offload in the tackle sent Potter away for his sixth try of the season.

And the game looked to be heading one way when Irish lost Adam Coleman to a yellow card and a penalty try for collapsing a maul as Tigers drove over the line.

However, indiscipline allowed Jackson to slot his third penalty of the half before the break and 13-man Irish were right back in contention at 26-21 when a break from Ollie Hassell-Collins' sent Arundell away to score.

But Reffell chased down Freddie Burns' grubber kick to ease the gathering nerves before Nadolo - who tormented Irish throughout - had his second via Matias Moroni's overhead pass.

There was still time for replacement Ashton to add another highlight to a breathless match as he went in at the corner to move second in the Premiership's all-time try scorer's list with his 90th score.

Yet Irish refused to lie down throughout the match, despite their numerical disadvantage, and had the final word when Cornish crashed over.

Leicester Tigers head coach Steve Borthwick told BBC Radio Leicester:

"I'm pleased with the result. It's been a challenging period and the players every week keep trying to put in a performance. It was a tough performance and a performance they can be proud of.

"We are proud of our players playing international rugby and we have to adapt when we don't have them and the players adapt brilliantly.

"We made a couple of errors and they took their chances. They had a man down, and two men down at one point, but they've still got incredible pace and incredible quality on the pitch and we knew that coming into the game.

"So it was a tough game, but I'm really pleased our players worked their way through it."

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney:

"I thought we had a lot of good moments, a lot of good efforts, we stayed on it as a team, but that's going to happen here at Welford Road if you're not on the money.

"[The red card] makes it more difficult, but it's nothing that we haven't overcome before. I wouldn't put the game just down to that.

"You can't coach what this team has, we fought for each other and got back into the game with 13 men.

"It was a one-try game there for a while, and when it was 14 v 15 we were in it for a long time, but then if you don't manage to convert scores, that's always going to give the opposition a chance and Leicester were always going to come into it in periods in the second half."

Leicester: Hegarty; Potter, Scott, Kelly, Nadolo; Burns, Wigglesworth; Whitcombe, Montoya, Heyes, Wells, Snyman, Liebenberg (capt), Reffell, Wiese.

Replacements: Clare, Van Wyk, Leatigaga, Green, Robinson, Van Poortvliet, Moroni, Ashton.

Sin-bin: Nadolo (77).

London Irish: Arundell; Cinti, Rona, Van Rensburg, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, Phipps (capt); Goodrick-Clarke, Creevy, Van der Merwe, Munga, Simmons, Cracknell, O'Brien, Tuisue.

Replacements: Cornish, Gigena, Hoskins, Coleman, Rogerson, Martin Gonzalez, O'Sullivan, Rowe.

Sin-bin: Coleman (38). Red card: Rona (29)

Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU).

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