European Challenge Cup
Irish and Exeter top pools with wins in Italy
ESPN Staff
January 24, 2015
London Irish celebrate Ofisa Treviranus's first try against Rovigo © Getty Images
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Flanker Ofisa Treviranus scored a hat-trick of tries as London Irish beat Rovigo 34-6 in the final pool match of the European Challenge Cup to finish top of Pool 1 ahead of Cardiff Blues.

A flurry of tries in the final quarter gave Irish a bonus-point and embellished the scoreline of what was a very comfortable victory, as their hosts could only muster a pair of first-half penalties.

Treviranus scored the game's first try after 25 minutes and that, along with five points from the boot of Shane Geraghty, gave Irish a 10-6 half-time lead. They cut loose in the second-half, however, with tries for wingers James Short and Topsy Ojo to go with Treviranus's haul.

Cardiff Bluesbeat Grenoble 28-3 to finish second in the group and are in a strong position to qualify for the knockout stages courtesy of a top runners-up spot.

Cardiff's indisciplined hosts had two men sent to the sin bin in the course of the game and conceded a pair of penalty tries, too. Lloyd Williams scored a first-half try and Josh Navidi scored in the closing minutes to hand the visitors a well-earned bonus point that took them level on points with London Irish.

Newcastle Falcons advanced to the quarter-finals with a 52-10 win over Bucureşti in Cluj. Falcons scored eight tries, six of which were converted by young fly-half Tom Catterick.

There were braces for Rob Vickers, Juan Pablo Socino and Alex Tait, while a penalty try on 32 minutes secured then bonus point and replacement scrum-half Andy Davies crossed in the final minute.

Falcons finish second in Pool Three behind Dragons, who beat Stade Francais 30-19 at Rodney Parade.

Dragons led from the off despite being out-scored three tries to two by Stade, they never relinquished their lead. Lock James Thomas scored a fourth minute try and T. Rhys Thomas added another just before the hour. Tom Prydie added 17 points with the boot. For Stade, there were tries for Krisnan Inu, Zurab Zhvania and Remy Bonfils.

Exeter Chiefs topped Pool 2 with a crushing 45-3 win over Bayonne at Sandy Park. Chiefs scored six tries, including three in the last 12 minutes, to finish the pool stages in style.

England wing Jack Nowell crossed after just three minutes and two Henry Slade penalties saw them lead 11-0 at the break. There were then tries for Matt Jess and Dave Ewers before Carl Rimmer, Kai Horstmann and captain Dean Mumm scored in the late flurry. In response, Bayonne could manage just a single Martin Bustos Moyano penalty.

Also in Pool 2, Connacht took the final spot in the quarter-finals with a 30-20 bonus point win away to La Rochelle. In a dramatic finish, Connacht scored two tries in the last six minutes to steal the win and secure the bonus point they needed for qualification.

Connacht's evening got off to a dream start with scrum-half Kiernan Marmion crossing in the second minute. Eoin McKeon scored early in the second half before Niyi Adeolokun and Matt Healy put on a late show to sneak into the knockout stages.

Challenge Cup quarter-finalists: Gloucester, Exeter, Dragons, London Irish, Edinburgh, Cardiff Blues, Newcastle, Connacht.

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