LONDON Irish slipped to an entertaining 39-27 defeat against Harlequins in the second match of the Cunningham Duncombe series on Friday night.

Quins carried a five-point lead into the game, having won the first encounter 22-17, and new Exiles coach Tom Coventry made six changes to his starting line-up, with new signing Rob McCusker named at number eight.

London Irish, who were the home side for this leg despite it being played at The Stoop, started the stronger of the two teams, and after building a promising position in the Harlequins 22, Chris Noakes delivered a pinpoint cross-field kick for Topsy Ojo to collect and dive in the corner.

Harelquins wasted no time in striking back, however, and after setting up camp deep in London Irish territory, Luke Wallace found himself in space on the wing to sprint in and dot down.

Nick Evans added the extras to put his side 7-5 up.

With Noakes and Evans trading blows with the boot, Quins led 13-8 with 10 minutes to play in the first half, but after a powerful scrum five metres from the Irish line, Mat Luamanu crashed over for Harlequins’ second try and Evans’ conversion made it 20-8.

The closing moments of the half saw the Exiles playing some promising rugby, with Alex Lewington and Andrew Fenby both making good inroads but Quins held on.

The second half saw Harlequins come out firing.

Luke Wallace crossed for his second of the evening after 43 minutes and five minutes later a clever chip through from Evans found Tim Swiel in space who dived over to make it 32-8.

Irish fought back soon after, being held up over the Quins line on the first attempt before Leo Halavatau crashed over from close range and Christian Lewis-Pratt added the extras.

Seven minutes later it was Alex Lewington who was diving over for the Exiles.

A well worked move in midfield gave him the chance to show his pace and the winger sprinted away from 40 metres to dive under the posts with Lewis-Pratt again converting to make it 32-22.

Harlequins responded with a try of their own, Rob Buchanan claiming the try after a powerful maul, but again Irish struck back, Halavatau grabbing his second of the evening.

The conversion from Lewis-Pratt made it 37-29 to set up a tense finale.

Despite intense Irish pressure, however, Harelquins held on and Ben Botica cleared to touch to claim the win and the inaugral Cunningham Duncombe series title for Harlequins, 61-44 on aggregate.

l READING RFC return to South West One East action this coming Saturday as they target a first win of the season at home to Oxford Harlequins (3pm).

The Sonning Lane side have picked up just two losing bonus points in their opening four games.

l UNBEATEN Reading Abbey will go in search of a third consecutive win when they visit Wallingford in Southern Counties North (3pm).

l IN the BB&O Championship, Berkshire Shire Hall will try and break their duck at home to Littlemore (3pm).