Welsh take advantage in first leg after injury to Ryan Jones

Gordon Ross converted all three tries and kicked two penalties for London Welsh (Getty Images)

London Welsh took a giant stride towards regaining their place in the Premiership with a convincing 27-8 win over Bristol in the Championship play-off final first leg.

Nathan Trevett, Nick Scott and Carl Kirwan all scored tries, with Gordon Ross converting all three and kicking two penalties, to give Welsh a 19-point advantage.

Bristol scored the opening try through Marco Mama but then conceded 24 unanswered points before Adrian Jarvis kicked a late penalty. But the game was a marred by a serious leg injury to former Welsh captain Ryan Jones.

Welsh conceded two soft penalties for the visitors to secure a line-out five metres out and Mama drove over.

Welsh suffered another early blow when their full-back, Seb Stegmann, departed with an injury but they built up pressure and were rewarded with a try,Trevett finishing off a line-out drive for the try.

Within minutes, Nathan Morris slipped away after a penalty, running 25 metres before feeding Scott, who held off two Bristol defenders to score under the posts.

After Jones was carried off, Luke Baldwin was another injury casualty before Ross kicked a penalty with the last kick of the half for a 17-5 interval advantage.

After the restart, Bristol were penalised for Welsh to choose an attacking line-out, Kirwan driving over.