By Finno
February 2 2016
This was your correspondent’s third foray into away match reporting this season. Having already reported on the away matches at Chiefs (38-11), Quins (38-07) and this weekend at Sharks (38-10), I can now confirm that I will not report on another away match this season, for fear of the '38 curse' rearing its ugly head again !
The Trip
For some reason, when I suggested that we all (wife and daughter) go to the Sharks game because I had a feeling in 'my waters' that an upset could be on the cards, I was greeted with a lot of 'navel staring' and 'looking skywards whistling', and not a lot else. 'Okay' I'll go myself, it’s only a 480 mile round trip. So, I set off at 08:45 and after a painless 4 hr drive I arrived at the AJ Bell Stadium, punctuated by a pits stop for coffee, where a nice young lady in Starbucks inquired 'who were London Irish playing today?'. She wished me luck, unfortunately we needed a lot more luck than she could offer!
The Ground.
It was my first visit to the AJ Bell. Nice compact and modern ground in the Sandy Park mode. (I'd love us to have a stadium like that) I know it's usually 'blowy' there and now I can understand why, the stadiums is built on a huge expanse of what seemed to be reclaimed wasteland. On Saturday it was cold and blowing a gale...kicking was going to be fun. I took my place on the North terrace, and while doing my 'Billy no mates' impression, a LI supporter came by and asked me how I though the game would go. It turned out to be Jonny Williams dad, nice guy and obviously very proud dad, which he should be! He had some interesting views on where Jonny should eventually 'hang his hat' with regard to this undoubted International future!
The Match
Irish kicked off with the considerable gale in their favour for the first half. A bright start netted a quick three points. We were then treated to a downpour of hail mixed with sleet all wrapped up in the gale that continued to blow. This made the next 15 minutes a bit of a lottery, however Sharks managed two tries, one of which was converted. During the downpour I was joined by a family who had fled their seats in the east stand soaked, with the hope of some shelter on the Terrace....I've never seen that before in all my years of attending matches. It was certainly a new twist on downgrading. Shane, then has an opportunity to reduce the deficit with a kick from just outside the 22, pretty much straight on to the posts, which I was stood behind. The kick looked good to me, but the touch judges ruled it wide. Perhaps they were too cold to crane their necks high enough to see the ball sail over. Despite, some good periods of possession we failed to make any real impression, until an excellent 5 metre scrum yielded a penalty try. 12-10 to Sharks at half time.
We were still in it, however, I did start to get the same sinking feeling that I got at Quins, when we played with the wind in the first have and were still in touch. It didn't take long for my fears to be realised. Within two minutes of the kick off Sharks had dotted down again, and it basically went downhill from there. The line out was misfiring, we were getting pushed back in the scrum and again, as in the first half we had lots of ball but only seemed to go from side to side and eventually backwards, then kicking the ball away. Sharks fired in another three tries (two of which I thought were the result of forward passes. No TMO review. Perhaps I was grasping at straws) and the final score ended 38-10.
Where to from here?
It was an extremely disappointing performance despite encouraging signs in the last few weeks. Even if we can't beat these sides we need to get at least some LBP's which could be the saviour come the end of the season. Many on this forum, think that we just need to win the mini league of ourselves, Falcons and Worcester to ensure survival. I don't subscribe to that view as our mini league opponents are capable of taking points from other teams, as Falcons proved on Sunday. We haven't really got anywhere near a LBP this season, apart from Saracens perversely! In the two games that we've won, we tried our best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. So....time to roll up your sleeves boys and get stuck in. Big performances required from here on in, starting with the vital game against Worcester next Sunday. Can we survive? Yes we can, but there needs to be a big shift in intensity and fewer basic errors. Perhaps eight man, stick it up your jumper tactics are required, to etch a few wins?? Who knows!
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Quote:Saz's old man
Good report Finno, out of interest how much did Sale charge for a ticket?
Quote:Jester
On the basis that Johnny's dad, Gareth, is as Welsh as you can possibly be, I'd imagine he wasn't praising the virtues of playing in the White of England! You're right though, he's a seriously top bloke!
Quote:Ozzy3213
MM, you're doing Sunday! ;-)
Quote:MickeyMouseQuote:Ozzy3213
MM, you're doing Sunday! ;-)
Wait, I forgot I did the pre-season friendly against Muster, so I'm 1-1.
This Sunday's match is being written up by Shawshank, who only reported on LI's home game against Edinburgh
Which we won 38-6
Wait, did Finno not do that report...?!?!