Leicester Tigers beat London Irish at Welford Road to end a three-game Premiership losing run and get their first win since the season restarted.

Ford added another penalty after the break, while Ben Meehan got the Exiles on the board after a series of surges.

It proved the last of the scoring, and condemned Irish to their fifth defeat in a row, and third since the restart.

This win keeps up Leicester's impressive dominance of Irish on home soil, having lost just twice in their history at Welford Road - albeit a silent one without the usual rousing partisan home crowd.

It was a game which never really threatened to ignite as a contest despite occasional glimpses of genuine class from both sides.

Luke Pearce's 100th game as a Premiership referee tested his whistle and his patience at times as scrums became long, drawn-out affairs - prompting him at one stage to tell both packs "we're not here to watch reset scrums".

That said, Steve Borthwick's Leicester enjoyed first-half supremacy of the set-piece, particularly at those scrums where Williams' try was born - tying in the defensive numbers and Nemani Nadolo's offload to create a huge overlap on the right.

They might have enjoyed more points but Tom Youngs' first-half burrow over was denied, while Nadolo had a try chalked off when Luke Wallace knocked the ball into the Fijian's path, and an offside call ruled out Tommy Reffell's dive at the corner.

Irish were outmuscled in the opening 40 but enjoyed a little more success in the second period, realigning their scrum and they finally got their reward in terms of points when the sniping Meehan finished off repeated assaults on Tigers' line.

However, despite continued muscular carries from Albert Tuisue, Tom Homer and Curtis Rona, they lacked the cut and thrust for the most part to part the Leicester line and as such the side with the most porous defence in the division slipped to another loss.

Leicester director of rugby Geordan Murphy: "Somebody said to me coming off that the game wasn't much of a spectacle but I actually enjoyed it.

"I'm happy with the win but especially pleased with the step up in intensity against Irish, who picked a very strong side and there were some hefty collisions out there.

"We lost two second-rows through injury and another to a yellow card so we had back-rowers at lock and that challenged our primary source of possession."

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney: "It was another step-up for us but I'm frustrated that we failed to take our opportunities.

"In the first half, they bossed us at the breakdown and we had a 6-1 penalty count against us and we will have to work on that area as it's all down to the interpretation of the referee. However, Leicester were very disciplined."

Leicester: Steward; Williams, Taute, Scott, Nadolo; Ford, B Youngs; Genge, T Youngs (capt), Cole, Wells, Green, Liebenberg, Reffell, Taufua.

Replacements: Clare, Leatigaga, Heyes, Martin, Wallace, White, Henry, Olowofela.

London Irish: Homer; Parton, Rona, Hepetema, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, Meehan; Elrington, Matu'u, Kepu, Nott, De Chaves, Donnell, Cowan (capt), Tuisue.

Replacements: Cornish, Goodrick-Clarke, Chawatama, Cooke, Ioane, Brand, J Atkins, Neal.

Referee: Luke Pearce