Pre-Season "Friendly" - London Welsh
By Griff
August 14 2010
The 2010/11 campaign kicked-off for London Irish with a return visit from London Welsh to Sunbury. The Friday night pre-Middlesex Sevens fixture proved popular last year and hopes were high for a good performance in front of a big crowd.
August 14 2010
The 2010/11 campaign kicked-off for London Irish with a return visit from London Welsh to Sunbury. The Friday night pre-Middlesex Sevens fixture proved popular last year and hopes were high for a good performance in front of a big crowd.
Sadly, no-one had booked the weather and the day was gloomy and showery which seemed to put some of the crowd off. I haven't seen any estimates but mine would be short of 1500 (compared to 2000 last season) maybe as low as 1000. It was, however still a good atmosphere and meant parking and transport wasn't too hellish.
All seemed to be going well close to seven o'clock with a clear sky and a bit of sunshine but as the clock ticked towards the 1930 k.o. the clouds returned and brought their friends. As the game began the heavens opened and made sure the already-wet conditions remained so. Any plans for flowing, running rugby had to be shelved.
At this point I should make a confession. It was a Friday, I'd been at work all day, I'd driven into Middlesex from Bracknell, I was having a nice time, finally. So I didn't actually take any notes. The following is from memory (at least I wasn't drinking!) and will be massively inaccurate. Sorry.
To be honest the first-half wasn't a great deal to write about. The rain meant handling was poor on both sides with Welsh losing more promising ball than Irish but this was mainly because Welsh generated more promising ball. The Irish plan seemed frustratingly similar to the last season's - whenever we took the ball in space in our half we hoofed it back to their full-back or wing to give them another go. Whether the plan was to make touch and we kept missing or we genuinely thought it was a good idea was unclear, it meant that the majority of the attacking opportunities were by the visitors.
Irish held defensively pretty-well but Welsh did make gaps a few times only to lose the ball in contact or slip a pass forward.
That isn't to say the home side had no attacking opportunities, there were a few but Welsh held firm too - sometimes a little over-zealously getting penalised more than once for off-side by referee Chris White. Irish kicked two penalties at goal through fly-half Chris Malone with a 50% success-rate. So at half-time is was an uninspiring 3 - 0 home lead.
The second half was a little better, whether it was down to the lack of rain or to the fact that Welsh seemed to adopt Irish's dubious tactic of kicking ball away to the opposition wasn't clear. Half way through the half the introduction of Bob Casey (of "Big" fame) to the pack seemed to spur the home side to run with the ball more often - it may have been because he'd had to listen to the sighs and frustrations of the crowd from the touch-line at each aimless kick in the first-half.
The action began in a similar vein to the first half but Irish had the better proportion of the play and pushed into their opposition's half more often. The first few produced penalties with Welsh still falling-foul of Mr White's interpretation of the off-side line and, on one occasion, putting-in a high tackle. Chris Malone kicked two of the penalties to give Irish a deserved-but-dull 9 - 0 lead.
By this time Mr Casey had arrived and Irish were controlling the game and pushing-forward regularly. A maul on the Welsh 22 was driving-forward nicely until the visitors decided to haul it down - spotted by Mr White but the home-side took more offense and a bit of a brawl ensued. I suspect the Welsh transgressor may have got a yellow card for his actions until the fight. As it was the penalty was reversed and two players from both teams were binned - Bob and George Stowers for Irish.
From the kick Irish wing Marcus Watson failed to control a loose ball in the home 22 and Welsh poured forward. Making a 4 on 1 overlap pay for an unconverted try in the corner.
Irish seemed to wake-up at this point and turned their control of the half into territory. A massive 5 minutes from Matt Garvey who appeared to be everywhere including a fantastic chase for the re-start. Irish hit back with their own try, a lovely running line from Marcus Watson through the Welsh defence to dot-down under the posts. The conversion gave the hosts a bit of breathing space.
The return of the 4 sinners didn't change much, control stayed with Irish and the ball remained pretty constantly in the Welsh half. Irish had, happily, stopped kicking penalties for the posts and seemed adamant they'd score another try. It came from a fantastic run by Tom Homer who had Watson outside him had he needed him but instead kept hold for a superb individual effort.
Malone missed the conversion as the game drew to a halt.
London Irish 21 - 5 London Welsh.
While control was always with the Premiership side, Welsh made them work very hard for the win. The 3 - 0 half time score tells more of the story than the final one. The aimless kicking back to the opposition was most worrying. Let's hope Irish were just ring-rusty and will be back with a vengeance for the mid-week game in Dublin.
All seemed to be going well close to seven o'clock with a clear sky and a bit of sunshine but as the clock ticked towards the 1930 k.o. the clouds returned and brought their friends. As the game began the heavens opened and made sure the already-wet conditions remained so. Any plans for flowing, running rugby had to be shelved.
At this point I should make a confession. It was a Friday, I'd been at work all day, I'd driven into Middlesex from Bracknell, I was having a nice time, finally. So I didn't actually take any notes. The following is from memory (at least I wasn't drinking!) and will be massively inaccurate. Sorry.
To be honest the first-half wasn't a great deal to write about. The rain meant handling was poor on both sides with Welsh losing more promising ball than Irish but this was mainly because Welsh generated more promising ball. The Irish plan seemed frustratingly similar to the last season's - whenever we took the ball in space in our half we hoofed it back to their full-back or wing to give them another go. Whether the plan was to make touch and we kept missing or we genuinely thought it was a good idea was unclear, it meant that the majority of the attacking opportunities were by the visitors.
Irish held defensively pretty-well but Welsh did make gaps a few times only to lose the ball in contact or slip a pass forward.
That isn't to say the home side had no attacking opportunities, there were a few but Welsh held firm too - sometimes a little over-zealously getting penalised more than once for off-side by referee Chris White. Irish kicked two penalties at goal through fly-half Chris Malone with a 50% success-rate. So at half-time is was an uninspiring 3 - 0 home lead.
The second half was a little better, whether it was down to the lack of rain or to the fact that Welsh seemed to adopt Irish's dubious tactic of kicking ball away to the opposition wasn't clear. Half way through the half the introduction of Bob Casey (of "Big" fame) to the pack seemed to spur the home side to run with the ball more often - it may have been because he'd had to listen to the sighs and frustrations of the crowd from the touch-line at each aimless kick in the first-half.
The action began in a similar vein to the first half but Irish had the better proportion of the play and pushed into their opposition's half more often. The first few produced penalties with Welsh still falling-foul of Mr White's interpretation of the off-side line and, on one occasion, putting-in a high tackle. Chris Malone kicked two of the penalties to give Irish a deserved-but-dull 9 - 0 lead.
By this time Mr Casey had arrived and Irish were controlling the game and pushing-forward regularly. A maul on the Welsh 22 was driving-forward nicely until the visitors decided to haul it down - spotted by Mr White but the home-side took more offense and a bit of a brawl ensued. I suspect the Welsh transgressor may have got a yellow card for his actions until the fight. As it was the penalty was reversed and two players from both teams were binned - Bob and George Stowers for Irish.
From the kick Irish wing Marcus Watson failed to control a loose ball in the home 22 and Welsh poured forward. Making a 4 on 1 overlap pay for an unconverted try in the corner.
Irish seemed to wake-up at this point and turned their control of the half into territory. A massive 5 minutes from Matt Garvey who appeared to be everywhere including a fantastic chase for the re-start. Irish hit back with their own try, a lovely running line from Marcus Watson through the Welsh defence to dot-down under the posts. The conversion gave the hosts a bit of breathing space.
The return of the 4 sinners didn't change much, control stayed with Irish and the ball remained pretty constantly in the Welsh half. Irish had, happily, stopped kicking penalties for the posts and seemed adamant they'd score another try. It came from a fantastic run by Tom Homer who had Watson outside him had he needed him but instead kept hold for a superb individual effort.
Malone missed the conversion as the game drew to a halt.
London Irish 21 - 5 London Welsh.
While control was always with the Premiership side, Welsh made them work very hard for the win. The 3 - 0 half time score tells more of the story than the final one. The aimless kicking back to the opposition was most worrying. Let's hope Irish were just ring-rusty and will be back with a vengeance for the mid-week game in Dublin.
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StumbleuponPre-Season "Friendly" - London Welsh
Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 14/08/2010 11:37
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Re: Pre-Season "Friendly" - London Welsh
Posted by: ulster tom (IP Logged)
Date: 15/08/2010 21:01
Good report Griff, even if we're still bowling out legacy shoite!
Glory, Glory London Irish, Glory, Glory London Irish
Glory, Glory London Irish, Glory, Glory London Irish
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