National 3 South West

IT was a familiar story as Oxford Harlequins slumped to a 73-15 home defeat to London Irish Wild Geese.

Quins’ fifth heavy reverse in five matches saw them ship 13 tries and they have already conceded more than 300 points.

The only consolation is that they travel to basement boys Maidenhead, who have a marginally worse record, on Saturday.

Wild Geese, who are London Irish’s amateur club, opened the scoring on five minutes with a well-worked try from left wing George Owen, who crossed the whitewash four times.

Fly half Liam Prescott converted, but Quins replied with a penalty from full back Will Hilton.

From then on, Quins struggled to win their share of possession and combined with Irish’s powerful running, they conceded six more tries before half-time.

Owen (3), lock Cathal Murphy, full back Matthew Betty and centre Russell Ayers crossed over, with Prescott converting three.

Just before the break, quick ball for Quins allowed left wing Jack Briggs to round the Irish defence for an unconverted try to make it 43-8. Sorry Quins conceded another six tries in an equally disappointing second half, with wing Conor Quinn grabbing a hat-trick.

Flanker Chris Browne, replacement Josh Gibson-Hunt and hooker Justin Oro-Campus completed the mauling.

Quins’ only return was an interception try by fly half Joey Todd, converted by Hilton.