Connacht Eagles suffered a heavy British & Irish Cup defeat at the hands of a ruthless Ealing Trailfinders in West London on Saturday.

Connacht remain in second place in Pool Four and the province still have a chance of making the knockout stages of the competition.

However, with Will Harries, Luke Daniels and Luke Carter in simply sublime form, they were easily swept aside by their English Championship opponents.

The game started on a positive note for Connacht, as left-wing Adam Leavy claimed a converted try on 11 minutes.

However, Ealing issued an immediate response through Miles Mantella, and with Alun Walker, Harries (two) and Carter also crossing over, the home team developed an insurmountable 31-7 interval advantage.

Ben Ward’s side brought this momentum into the second period and opened up a 50-point gap as Harries completed his hat-trick.

Connacht responded with a 66th-minute try from centre Stacey Ili before late efforts by Dan Temm, Rhys Lawrence and Lewis Jones rounded off an impressive Ealing display.

EALING TRAILFINDERS: L Daniels; W Harries, L Jones, J Munro, M Mantella; R Clegg, L Carter; J Gibbons, A Walker, L Thiede; B Maddison, L Jones; K Murphy, R Smid, M Bright. Reps: R Lawrence, D Sears Duru, S Rodman, M Allen, D Temm, D Grant Adamson, P Lydon.

CONNACHT EAGLES: M Byrne; R Scholes, S Illi, K Joyce, A Leavy; A Deegan, C McKeon; C O’Donnell, D Tierney, C Kenny; P Claffey, C Gallagher; S Masterson, J Connolly, P Boyle. Reps: C Torpey, M Burke, C Kyne, N Murray, R Feehily, L Carty, M O’Reilly.

REF – D Phillips (WRU)