Chris Malone kicked four penalties and Tom Homer the other as London Irish improved their chances of qualifying for next season's Heineken Cup with a vital win over local rivals Harlequins.

Malone, who is hanging up his boots at the end of the season to go back to Australia to take up a coaching position at Sydney University, slotted over the final points of the game against his former club before limping off injured.

Harlequins went in on level terms at 9-9 at half-time thanks to three penalties from their young fly-half Rory Clegg.

But neither side looked likely to score a try in a dour struggle even when they were both reduced to 14 men in the second half.

Quins had Jordan Turner-Hall sinbinned when referee Sean Davey ran out of patience with the number of penalties the visitors were conceding, while Irish lost Paul Hodgson for a trip when it looked like the scrum-half was simply trying to kick the ball.

London Irish coach Toby Booth said: "I was delighted with the win. It is really important that you start picking up wins at this time of the year.

"Plenty to work on. But the effort was outstanding. Justin Bishop has been doing a lot of work from a defensive point of view in the last couple of weeks making sure we are hard to break down and that is the secret of league rugby.

"Some of the things we did from a set-piece is where we gained an edge. We put their lineout under extreme pressure and were quite comfortable on our own. It was similar from a scrum point of view.

"Those things set the foundation of the win. It was a decent return if not as clinical as we would like."

To see how it all unfolded just click below.

London Irish: 15 Tom Homer, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Seilala Mapusua, 12 Dan Bowden, 11 Adam Thompstone, 10 Chris Malone, 9 Paul Hodgson, 8 George Stowers, 7 Steffon Armitage, 6 Jamie Gibson, 5 Bob Casey, 4 Nick Kennedy, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 2 James Buckland, 1 Clarke Dermody (c).      

Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Max Lahiff, 18 Paulica Ion, 19 Kieran Roche, 20 Richard Thorpe, 21 Jonathan Joseph, 22 Ryan Lamb, 23 Darren Allinson.

Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Tom Williams 13 Ugo Monye, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Ollie Lindsay-Hague 10 Rory Clegg, 9 Dave Moore, 8 Chris Robshaw (capt), 7 Will Skinner, 6 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 5 Pete Browne, 4 Ollie Kohn, 3 James Johnston,, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Joe Marler.

Replacements: 16 Chris Brooker, 17 Ceri Jones, 18 Mark Lambert, 19 Tomas Vallejos, 20 Chris York, 21 Ben Urdapilleta, 22 Tom Casson, 23 Ross Chisholm.