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Doncaster finally show-up


By LI Bohemian
May 10 2017

After watching Yorkshire Carnegie’s home leg of the other semi on Sky the previous night, judging it a limitation exercise by the home side, I was hoping that Irish would put in a solid performance to match the away leg they played against Doncaster the week before. The conditions were pretty fair, the team was the same as last week and the crowd although not as big as I was hoping for, seemed to be made up of die hard and enthusiastic supporters. 

We noticed that Joe Cockanasiga was hobbling badly and getting attention from the physio, and sure enough he only lasted the first half, it was very disappointing that the management risked him for this game and I hope this does not affect his chances on the Argentina Tour. 
The game kicked off with the feel of an end of season touring match, but luckily the crowd urged the play and the players responded. 
Tommy Bell, the player who was missed immensely in the latter part of this season, kicked the ball from hands, with deadly accuracy to put the throw in on the 15metre line, something he did all game, which must be demoralizing to opposing teams and puts the pack in the driving seat every time. The ball is caught and driven to within a couple of meter’s of the line, David Paice has the ball and Ben Franks charges into the static maul to get the ball over the line for a try. Bell converts out wide(ish). 
After the restart it is clear to see that Irish had decided, apart from David Paice, that their work was done, Doncaster are a good side and took advantage of this opportunity to score a well worked try, to make the score 7-5. 
Irish kicked the ball long and Doncaster tried to play the ball out of their half, but no one told Fergus Mulchrone, who put in a bone shaker tackle, that resulted in the ball being turned over to Irish, Doncaster then gave a penalty away, and while they were jogging back 10 yards, the ball was whipped out to Lewi who touched down for a try, Bell getting the extra’s, 14 – 5. 
Irish seemed to stand down again, but unusually this time Doncaster went for the posts, after getting a penalty decision, 14 – 8, which indecently equals the total amount of points Doncaster have scored against Irish in the three games previously, this was the best I have seen them play this season. 
Irish cancel out the Doncaster penalty with one of their own making it 17 – 8, 
It looks like Doncaster have found their stride and work the ball into the Irish half, the defense of Irish holds firm for quite a while, after a long period of penalty advantage Doncaster cross the line, only for the TMO (what ever that modern phenomena is) to strike it off, the Official was not happy the a near try after multi phases of play was advantage enough, so the penalty was called and from that Doncaster scored a try. Half time saw the scores at 17 – 15, this was the closest Doncaster got to Irish score wise, because when play resumed Irish scored two try’s the first was down to the strength of Coman, that resulted in a try for Ben Franks, the second was another line drive this time Poreki had replaced Paice for the try, at 32 – 15 the game was over, Doncaster score a try and Irish score at the end through Scot Steele. The final score is 39 – 22 (74 – 25) 
Over all Irish made quite a few unforced errors, and threw away 2 or 3 certain try’s, but you have to say the semi final was won at the Castle Park Ground, and this was Doncaster’s chance to redeem themselves, and they did.

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Doncaster finally show-up
Discussion started by The Craic www.londonirish.org , 10/05/2017 14:16
The Craic www.londonirish.org
10/05/2017 14:16
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