Leeds Tykes eased their relegation fears with a comfortable victory over the Exiles that ended their five-match losing run in the Zurich Premiership.

The Tykes mastered the clinging Headingley mud to outplay London Irish in a dress rehearsal for their Powergen Cup semi-final on March 6 and secure their first league win for almost three months.

Fly-half Gordon Ross defied the difficult conditions to kick four goals from as many attempts but it was the non-stop effort of his forwards, with second row pair Chris Murphy and Tom Palmer particularly outstanding, which laid the platform for a much-needed win.

Leeds defended superbly and showed exemplary discipline to keep dangerous marksman Mark Mapletoft at bay.

Mapletoft, who landed seven penalties in the Exiles' Powergen Cup win over Saracens a week earlier, was wide with his solitary kick in the first half.

Ross, on the other hand, made full use of the wind at his back to put over three well-struck penalties, all of them from long distance, to give his side a deserved 9-0 interval lead.

With tryscoring opportunities at a premium, Leeds were left to rue winger David Rees' knock-on with the line at his mercy on 28 minutes while Irish left winger Scott Staniforth was inches away from gathering Mapletoft's accurate punt to the corner on the stroke of half-time.

The Tykes enjoyed the bulk of possession and wingmen Rees and Andre Snyman had more running opportunities than they had any right to expect in the circumstances.

Unfortunately for the home side, their execution fell short of matching their enterprise, which was no disgrace in the trying conditions.

Leeds ought to have made more of a break by blockbusting centre Chris Bell early in the second half and that miss began to look costly when the visitors scored the game's first try, their first in six games.

That came on 55 minutes when Mike Catt's long pass unleashed Staniforth in space and he squeezed over at the corner, too far out for Mapletoft to add the conversion.

That made it 9-5 but the Irish fightback proved short-lived, with Snyman on hand just three minutes later to race clear from a quickly-taken tap penalty by scrum-half Alan Dickens 20 metres out from the Exiles line.

Ross maintained his 100% record with the touchline conversion and Leeds finished well on top to complete a league double over their opponents and climb a place to ninth in the table.