The Armitage brothers helped London Irish celebrate their St Patrick's Party match in style by scoring three of their side's four tries this afternoon.

Delon Armitage took just 40 seconds to announce his return from an eight-week ban for abusing a drugs testing official when he pounced on a grubber kick by fly-half Dan Bowden and dived over in the corner.

And younger brother Steffon weighed in with a try in each half.

The first was when he finished off a superb free-flowing team move that involved some great running and offloading by Delon Armitage, Seilala Mapusua, Elvis Seveali'i, George Stowers and Nick Kennedy.

Steffon's second, and Exiles' bonus-point clinching fourth try, came from a strong pick and drive after a period of pressure close to the Exeter line.

In between there was a well earned try for replacement hooker David Paice, who marked his return after four months out with an ankle injury, by finishing off a great forward drive under the posts.

Winger Tom Homer kicked Irish's other 19 points.

His tally included two conversions and five penalties, one a monster kick from inside his own half.

Exeter rallied after a poor start and went in 18-8 down at half-time, Chris Budgen going over from close range to add to a penalty by Gareth Steenson.

And three more penalties from Steenson after the restart during Exeter's best spell trimmed the deficit to 18-17 and set the Irish nerves jangling for a bit.

But any Exeter momentum was stopped by the sin-binning of flanker James Scaysbrook.

Irish, roared on by a Madejski Stadium crowd of 20,011,  regrouped and sealed a victory that strengthens their chances of qualifying for next season's Heineken Cup and keeps alive their outside hopes of finishing in the top four and making the play-offs.

For a blow-by-blow account of how the match unfolded click below.

London Irish: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Topsy Ojo, 13 Elvis Seveali'i, 12 Seilala Mapusua, 11 Tom Homer, 10 Daniel Bowden, 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 David Paice 17 Alex Corbisiero 18 Paulica Ion 19 Gary Johnson 20 Richard Thorpe 21 Adam Thompstone 22 Ryan Lamb 23 Darren Allinson

Exeter: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Matt Jess, 13 Jason Shoemark, 12 Sireli Naqelevuki, 11 Nic Sestaret, 10 Gareth Steenson, 9 Haydn Thomas, 8 Richard Baxter, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 James Hanks, 4 Tom Hayes (c), 3 Chris Budgen, 2 Neil Clark, 1 Brett Sturgess.

Replacements: 16 Simon Alcott, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Hoani Tui, 19 Chad Slade, 20 James Phillips, 21 Junior Poluleuligaga, 22 Nemani Nadolo, 23 Ignacio Mieres.

Referee: Greg Garner.