B&I friendlies well under way

It's been a major weekend of friendlies throughout the Britain and Ireland, with the new season just a fortnight away. We round up the action!

Weekend results:

Bath 49-21 Edinburgh
Cardiff Blues 26-21 Exeter Chiefs
Harlequins 24-0 Ulster
Leicester Tigers 17-13 Munster
London Wasps 41-6 Leinster
Saracens 22-5 Connacht
Doncaster Knights 18-14 Leeds Carnegie
Newcastle Falcons 48-12 Rotherham Titans
Scarlets 43-14 Worcester
Ospreys 14-24 Gloucester
Glasgow 22-23 Sale
London Irish 33-20 Dragons
Dax 34-30 Northampton.

Notes:

London Irish 33-20 Dragons

Topsy Ojo scored his first London Irish try for 18 months and George Stowers grabbed a brace as the Exiles continued their good form with a 33-20 win over Newport Gwent Dragons.

Despite some pre-season rustiness, it was yet another solid performance from Toby Booth's side in, at times, difficult conditions as heavy rain lashed down at Rodney Parade.

The back three of Armitage, Ojo and Tom Homer all showed glimpses of their attacking prowess with ball in hand. Kieran Roche and Bob Casey excelled in the second row, Steffon Armitage buzzed around the breakdown looking to attack at every opportunity and Dan Bowden and Elvis Seveali'i dovetailed well in midfield.

But the real star performer was Ryan Lamb who lead the line excellently with an all round performance at number ten that saw him finish with 18 points.

Wasps 41-6 Leinster

Wasps ran riot at Donnybrook against a Leinster team missing many many big names.

They led only 8-6 at the break through a try by Ben Jacobs, but tries from Jacobs, Richard Haughton (2), Mark van Gisbergen and Chris Wade took them clear.

Ospreys 14-24 Gloucester

It was an impressive display with all Gloucester's points scored in the first half before a gutsy second half defensive effort just kept the Ospreys at bay.

The home side weren't at full strength but were clearly in no mood to roll over and introduced several of their big guns as they fought to get on even terms but to no avail.

Three tries to two in favour of Gloucester was a fair summary of the game and will provide a huge boost of confidence although a number of players having to leave the field will be a concern.

Gloucester's tries came from Henry Trinder, Luke Narraway and Matt Cox, while the Ospreys' answered with tries from Jamie Nutbrown and Dan Biggar.

Scarlets 43-14 Worcester

Regan King opened a hat-trick of first half tries for the Scarlets - showing some return to form which will excite the Scarlets faithful. Scrum half Martin Roberts and outside half Rhys Priestland scored the other two.

Priestland converted all three tries as well as kicking a penalty following an offence by Worcester's winger Oriol Ripol which led to a yellow card.

The Scarlets young winger, 18 year-old George North showed why he's a great prospect for the future with a display that will encourage the Scarlets coaches who have invested heavily in developing youth within the region.

In the second half, Roberts and Damien Welch scored further tries.

Glasgow 22-23 Sale

Glasgow coach Sean Lineen was particularly impressed with Glasgow's emerging talent as they just lost out to Sale despite scoring more tries.

"These boys take the bull by the horns and make it hard for those guys when they come back," said the Glasgow coach.

"We scored four cracking tries. Each one was well-crafted and we have worked really hard on that in pre-season, playing the game at a high tempo and I am really happy from that point of view."

Despite Glasgow scoring one more try than Sale, it was the English side who came from behind for what was ultimately a deserved win.

Dax 34-30 Northampton

Blistering heat greeted the Saints in France, and they fell to the odd try in seven in an entertaining clash.

Dax fielded a fine side, including Morgan Turinui and former Saint Matheiu Bourret, while Northampton had more or less a full side, with the exception of Ben Foden.

Chris Ashton looked in good form, scoring a try, the other two tries coming from Greig Tonks and Brian Mujati.

Bath 49-21 Edinburgh

Bath scored seven tries as they concluded their pre-season programme with a convincing victory over Magners League side Edinburgh at the Rec.

Nick Abendanon and influential captain Luke Watson both scored twice, while Stuart Hooper, Guy Mercer and Matt Banahan also got their names on the scoresheet as Bath overcame a shaky start to the second half to win comfortably.

Olly Barkley was in immaculate form with the boot, converting all seven tries to end with 14 points as Bath followed up their impressive win over Ulster in Belfast with another victory.

Head coach Steve Meehan said: "It would be really simple to concentrate on the negative of the early six or seven minutes of that second half when we conceded two tries. But the beauty of that, which put us under some pressure, was that we stayed calm and got ourselves back into the game through playing the rugby we wanted to."

Cardiff Blues 26-21 Exeter Chiefs

Exeter Chiefs kicked-off their pre-season programme with a narrow 26-21 defeat at home to Magners League visitors Cardiff Blues.

Tom James, Chris Czekaj, Tom Brown and Tom Shanklin all scored for the Blues, while Exeter got eleven points from Gareth Steenson's boot as well as a try from Steenson and winger Matt Jess.

Harlequins 24-0 Ulster

Quins welcomed back their English summer tourists, along with Chris Brooker, from injury in the shut-out of Ulster.

Ulster had travelled to London with a young side, particularly amongst the backs with a number of Academy players included in the starting line-up.

The England contingent counted, with Danny Care and Ugo Monye both scoring tries, while Nick Evans converted four kicks from four. Harlequins' other try was scored by young prop Joe Marler

Munster 13-17 Leicester Tigers

The Tigers looked good in Cork, with Alesana Tuilagi scoring two tries, but it should be noted that Munster were without several international players who might have made a difference.

There was plenty of feistiness from the visitors, who saw Boris Stankovich carded for repeated infringements and Geordan Murphy for punching. Denis Leamy scored Munster's only try, with Paul Warwick getting the other points.