LONDON Irish sealed their place in the British & Irish Cup quarter finals with a bonus-point 41-14 victory away to Connacht Eagles on Saturday.

Exiles ran in seven tries in Athlone with man-of-the-match Scott Steele scoring a blistering 19-minute hat-trick to set them on their way.

It took less than a minute for Steele to grab his first touchdown when he sniped over from close range after superb work from Tom Parton and the Exiles forwards.

The Scottish scrum-half notched his second in the 15th minute when he took a neat offload from Todd Gleave before dabbing down in the corner.

Then immediately from the restart Steele went over a third time after a slick move from the backs involving Ross Neal and Theo Brophy-Clews, the latter's decisive pass opening up a route to the line.

It was one-way traffic and Steele also turned provider when his superb pass to Neal allowed the Academy product to slide over for the bonus-point score and a 22-0 lead.

Nick Kennedy's visitors were completely on top and they pulled even further away when Neal doubled his own tally by pouncing on a loose ball deep in Eagles territory before crossing the whitewash. Brophy-Clews landed his first conversion of the day to put Exiles 29-0 up.

The hosts, however, did at least put some points on the board when centre Ciaran Gaffney punished some slack defending to cross for a try, with Luke Carty's conversion leaving them 29-7 down at the interval.

Irish, though, upped their game again after the restart and went over for their sixth try of the day in the 52nd minute.

Recent London Welsh signing and Exiles debutant Josh McNally combined with Jerry Sexton to power the visitors up the pitch before Senitiki Nayalo crossed in the corner. Brophy-Clews failed to add the extras as Irish led 34-7.

Their final try of the day soon followed when hooker Gleave blasted his way over from close quarters, with replacement Jacob Atkins knocking over the conversion to put Irish 41-7 in front.

Eagles had the final say thanks to a converted Sean Masterson try, but it was no more than token gesture after a contest dominated by the Exiles.

Irish remain unbeaten in all competitions this season and they will be hoping to preserve that record when they host Ospreys Premiership Select in their final British & Irish Cup group match at Madejski Stadium this Saturday (2pm ko).

London Irish: Parton, Williams, Hearn, Neal (Williams 65), Ransom, Brophy-Clews (Atkins 60), Steele, Elrington, Gleave, Hoskins, Sexton (Lloyd 60), McNally, Trayfoot (Narraway 65), Gilsenan (c), Nayalo. Reps not used: Adams, Hay, Narraway, Brand.