UNBEATEN London Irish secured their 10th successive victory to stay top of the Greene King IPA Championship after a bonus-point 42-29 home win against Jersey Reds.

Jersey ran in four tries of their own at Madejski Stadium on Sunday, but it was not enough to end Exiles' 100% record this season.

Irish knew they would be in for a tough afternoon from the start as Jersey burst out of the blocks and scored a try after three minutes.

A quick tap penalty from scrum-half Sam Fisilau opened up the home team's defence and former Exile Guy Armitage arrived on the overlap and sprinted half the length of the field to dot down in the corner. Sam Katz slotted the touchline conversion to put Jersey 7-0 ahead.

Irish hit back with a Tommy Bell penalty after Reds had infringed at the breakdown and then went 10-7 up when David Paice barged over from a driving lineout, with Bell comfortably landing the extras.

Jersey soon restored parity when Catz banged over a monster penalty from inside his own half, but Irish snatched their second try on the stroke of half time when Richard Palframan crossed the whitewash from another driving lineout, with Bell's conversion putting them 17-10 in front at the interval.

A a quick burst from Nick Kennedy's men early in the second half then produced two match-defining tries and effectively secured a home victory.

The first was expertly finished off by Ben Ransom from an exquisite looping pass from Bell.

Then Tom Fowlie repeated the feat to seal the bonus point and leave Irish 29-10 in front with 44 minutes gone.

Jersey, to their credit, would not lie down and continued to ask questions of the Exiles defence.

The Islanders quickly reduced the deficit two minutes later through a Marc Thomas try, with Katz's conversion leaving them trailing 29-17.

Bell slotted his second penalty of the contest to give Exiles more breathing space, but Jersey responded with another converted try.

Greig Tonks' decision to go for a cross-field kick when deep inside Exiles territory backfired when it was collected by Reds winger George Watkins, who shrugged off two tackles to score. Katz missed his conversion on this occasion to leave the visitors 32-22 in arrears.

But once again Exiles responded immediately as a string of big carries from the restart ended with former England man Paice crashing over for his second try of the day.

Bell added the extra without much problem and then notched a drop-goal to extend his side's lead to 42-22.

Jersey kept fighting to the very end and managed to grab a deserved losing bonus-point when No.8 Nick Haining picked up from the base of the scrum before barrelling over for a converted score.

The hard-fought victory leaves Irish seven points clear of second-place Yorkshire Carnegie in the table.

This Saturday Exiles travel to Rotherham Titans, currently eighth in the table (2pm ko).