The return to the team of Colin Charvis from international duty could not stop our forwards being tossed around at a sold-out Kingston Park, as a losing bonus point was all we had to show after a match we again could have won.

Our visitors, with a strong kicking spine of Barry Everitt, Mike Catt and Riki Flutey in the backs, had the first chance of the game when after just a few minutes we were turned over at a scrum and Delon Armitage was set loose of the right but after beating Jonny Wilkinson he was tackled into touch by Matt Burke.  We then attacked with Geoff Parling taking a lineout and Mathew Tait driving through towards the right, and after Wilkinson dropped a pass the referee brought our advantage back into the middle, and Wilkinson kicked an easy three points.

Everitt equalised when we were penalised for pulling down a maul, but we went straight back upfield and good hands from Charvis and James Grindal set Tom May away, and after he was tackled we moved back over to the left and Tait set up Burke who evaded a tackle to slice a great line through the Irish defence for the first try of the evening.  Wilkinson’s conversion unfortunately didn’t have the distance however.

Everitt pulled another three points back when Ben Woods went over the top on halfway, and with five minutes to go to half time Flutey won another kick for Everitt to give the Exiles the lead.  The expected tight game was in prospect, but Irish pulled away with the last action of the first half.  Andy Long was penalised for lineout delay, and from the resulting free kick Irish won a scrum.  Everitt broke through superbly, and a deft pass through Catt to Flutey allowed the Australian to score through some huge Newcastle defensive gaps.  Everitt’s conversion left us 8-16 down at the break.

Initially it looked like things would get even worse in the second half, as Grindal dropped a pass and Mike Catt chased a kick into the corner, Tait saving us by touching down himself.  However, from the resulting scrum the visitors pushed our forwards back as easily as Harlequins will do to Bridgwater in two weeks, and Phil Murphy picked up the ball for a simple try which Everitt again converted.  8-23.

A big comeback effort was required, and almost mounted successfully, as we dominated territorially for most of the rest of the game, Wilkinson kicking a quick penalty after an offence in the lineout.  Our fly-half then made a decent break but we were let down when Long infringed and Irish were awarded a penalty.  Towards the hour, we scored another three penalties, the third rather contentious as Flutey was penalised for not rolling away from Charvis despite the fact the referee only gave him about half a second to do so!

On 68 minutes, with the score having crept back to 20-23, Wilkinson attempted a drop goal, but nudged his effort wide of the posts.  After that we didn’t have any real clear chances, and it came down to a last minute attack with a penalty in our half.  We took the lineout near the Irish 22, and fed the ball out to the otherwise ineffective James Hoyle on the left wing.  Irish defended bravely, but we continued to hold position, moving infield and looking for a winning score until Parling dropped a pass a few metres out.  From the Irish scrum Everitt kicked the ball out and the referee called the game to an end.

London Irish moved up to 4^th in the table, and look a decent team with powerful forwards and a creative spine in the backs.  We on the other hand are stuck dead in 11^th, and after our fifth league defeat in seven games, we need to find some form somewhere if relegation isn’t to become an issue.  Although we are eight points above Leeds, it only takes one win for them at Bristol on Sunday for the bottom of the table to get tighter.

Despite having a lot of territory last night, our forwards still fail to dominate and the way Irish pushed us over for their second try was frankly embarrassing.  Grant Anderson has been at best completely ineffective since joining us, whilst the lineout started well but then fell apart as so often before.

On the plus side, Matt Burke was again superb and deserved his man of the match award.  For his try, Hoyle was perhaps in a better position but Burke led by example and took responsibility himself.  Not enough of our backs do this, especially now when Mark Mayerhofler and Jamie Noon are absent.

This is still not actually our worst start to a Premiership season.  After seven games in 1999/2000 we had drawn twice and lost five, so we are now slightly better off, but it is still not good enough.

We need wins, and fast.

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