LONDON Irish will take a huge lead into the home leg of their Greene King IPA Championship play-off semi final after a resounding 35-3 victory at Doncaster Knights.

Exiles were dominant from the first whistle to the last as they ran in six tries against the hosts in Sunday's televised clash.

It leaves Irish with a massive advantage over Doncaster in the second leg which takes place at Madejski Stadium this Saturday (3pm ko).

However, it was Doncaster who almost took the lead in the eighth minute when Dougie Flockhart pinched a Simon Humberstone kick off Brendan McKibbin in the try zone before dabbing down.

But the television match official judged he had crossed the dead ball line and ruled out the score.

Irish were quick to capitalise on the stroke of luck and opened the scoring four minutes later with a David Paice touchdown.

The visitors turned down three points and kicked for the corner, a decision which was rewarded when man-of-the-match Blair Cowan gathered cleanly at the lineout allowing the Irish forwards to drive Paice over the line.

Tommy Bell missed the conversion in the blustery conditions, but the momentum was already with the Exiles.

They increased their lead with a second try in the 24th minute when Ofisa Treviranus powered through Doncaster's defence before offloading to Fijian international Aseli Tikoirotuma on the charge.

Bell failed to add the conversion again and Flockhart replied with a simple penalty after Irish infringed at the scrum to leave Doncaster trailing 10-3 at the break.

But Exiles turned on the style in the second half and extended their lead with an Alex Lewington try three minutes after the restart.

Australian scrum-half McKibbin collected a high ball and released Fergus Mulchrone who sent winger Lewigton on his way to the line, with Bell adding the extras.

With Irish now oozing confidence, try number four soon arrived when a well-worked lineout ended with Paice going over for his second of the day.

It was becoming an exercise in damage limitation for Doncaster, but they were powerless to stop Sebastian De Chaves from crossing the whitewash for a fifth score.

And a Bell penalty plus a second touchdown by the impressive Tikoirotuma rounded off the scoring and sealed an impressive win which puts Irish in the box seat for the home leg this Saturday with one foot already in the final.

Meanwhile, Ealing Trailfinders, who trail Yorkshire Carnegie 34-16 in the other semi-final, and Doncaster have already confirmed they will not accept promotion if they win the play-offs.

Doncaster: Jarvis, Flockhart (Clark 56), Bulumakau, Hayes, Lewis, Humberstone (Cusack 51), Heaney (Edgerley 65), List (Bergmanas 57), Hunter (Nelson 56), Quigley (John 45), Challinor, Young (Williams 4'), Shaw, Hills, Carpenter.

London Irish: Bell (Tonks 68), Lewington, Tikoirotuma, Fergus Mulchrone, Cokanasiga, Marshall, McKibbin (Steele 62), Hobbs-Awoyemi (Court 57), Paice (c) (Porecki 68), Franks (Hoskins 75), De Chaves (Robson 63), Sinclair (De Chaves 70), Coman (Gilsenan 57), Cowan, Treviranus.

Referee: Luke Pearce.

Attendance: 2,173.