At that time what kept me coming back as a London Irish supporter was the Craic. What concerns me now is that potential new supporters don't even have that consolation. If you'll bear with me I'll digress for a while and talk about the match day experience. If you are only interested in a match report please skip the next eight paragraphs. 

For the first time in many years I was at this game by myself. I took the opportunity to digest as much of the match day experience as I could. For the first time ever I sat in the South stand. As I put finger to keyboard I'm planning to dwell on those aspects as much as what happened on the field.

After a quick hello to a few people my first priority was to get some food. Now I do know how bad the outside catering at the Madstad is. I have rattled on about it enough down the years. LISC meetings with the caterers aside things haven't improved. Outside the stadium there are two stalls; a burger van that also sells fish and chips and a fish and chip van that also sells burgers. The fish and chips I had, from the burger van, was acceptable but grossly over priced. Perhaps twice the cost of the equivalent from a local chippy. 

Whilst I'm having a moan about prices I'll move on to booze. I had pints of Guinness in the hotel, the Jazz Cafe and in the stand. These cost 3.75, 3.50 and 3.30 respectively. As I type this I'm at Heathrow, one of the country's most expensive retail locations, the pint I have in front of me now cost 2.90. Again I am well aware that the price of drinks, as with the catering, is out of the clubs control. What concerns me is that the price of an afternoon at the Madejski, match ticket aside, may be deterring people. 

As I strolled round the stadium there were a couple of things struck me. The shop seems to have reverted to its old habit of being 50% LI merchandise and 50% Reading FC on match days. This meant that half the shop was full and half was empty. Credit where it is due, there is now a much wider range of merchandise. The kids zone was quite a bit away from the main concourse and was consequently not very busy. This may have been down to the fact that the Sky TV vans were taking up quite an area close to the Jazz Cafe.

Match aside, one of the biggest disappointments of the day was the band. I don't intend this as a specific criticism of "The Hot Dogs", they were competent enough musicians, but they have no connection with, or interest in, our club whatsoever. In between the first and second numbers the lead singer asked "Were you at Twickenham two weeks ago?" and "Did you win?". Our match day has lost another part of its Irishness. "I may as well be at Quins" was one of the many disparaging remarks, from both LI and Bristol supporters, I heard during the afternoon.

As some of you will know I have moved to the South Stand this season. Accessing this proved to be something of a challenge. My season ticket said Gate 9, this was closed. When I tried to use my card in Gate 10 it was rejected as, I later learnt, were most if not all. The stewards were helpful if frustrated and let me in with their master card.

From the South I got a good perspective of the crowds in the East and West Stands. The West, it has to be said, looked quite empty. Whilst I don't know for sure it strikes me that a few hundred may well have switched from there to the East. Several people also remarked to me that the East was lacking in atmosphere. Perhaps it was just the game, we shall see. I also understand that the seating arrangements where the drummers are leave something to be desired. One hopes that these issues can be sorted out.

This was Llanera's first home game as sponsors and the red carpet was well and truly rolled out for them. Pre-match their UK Managing Director was making paella in the directors box. He was also interviewed and at half time we were treated to flamenco dancers on the pitch. It is a crying shame the fayre offered on the pitch was so abysmal.

To the match itself. First off I must highly commend OxonRob's match report on the SC. He was at the same game as me, albeit in a different stand. 

As we watched the warm up it became apparent that Bob Casey was nowhere to be seen. Later we learnt that he had picked up an ankle ligament injury in training and will be out for 8-10 weeks. On the basis of this performance he will be badly missed.

We started off brightly enough. The first lineout we won against the head, situation normal. The scrum looked solid, good news. Catty's kicking from hand was sublime, even better news. Our first points came on when Bris were pinged for holding on after a wonderful garryowen by said Cattman. Five minutes into the game, we're 3 - 0 up. 

Most of the first half was ours. Bris did look set to score a try on 10 mins but a wonderful and very brave try saving dive on the ball by Dodge kept us in front. There was at that stage a slight concern about Riki's kicking. He missed a reasonably doable kick from the 10m line just to the left of the posts. That concern was put to rest as we scored a wonderful try. In a move that reminded me of the best of last season Catty made two wonderful long passes, one in each direction, one of which found Topsy with space. Having broken the defence he passed to Roche who went over the line. Riki missed the conversion.

We swapped penalties prior to half time and went in 11 - 3 up. As I was queuing for a drink at half time I sent a text to the Netherlands saying 'We are all over them, should be clear by now'. The reply I had reminded me that I supported London Irish and that such cockiness was often misplaced, so it proved to be. 

The old football cliché "Its a game of two halves Barry" could be very correctly applied to this match. The team that came out for the second half could best be described as having gone from match winners to headless chickens. The indiscipline that stopped us scoring from good attacking positions in the first half led on to us giving away silly penalties within kicking range in the second. Less than ten minutes into the second half we had gifted them three kickable penalties, two of which they converted, the score was now 11 - 9.

Riki was struggling. I don't know why but the kicks that we saw him put over so sweetly at Twickenham two weeks ago just were not making it between the posts. He had missed chances in the first half to put us clear and again he missed a very kickable attempt to put a bit of distance between ourselves and our opponents. It was then that the turning point in the game came.

From inside our own half Dilly chipped over a couple of Bris players. I have not seen the TV coverage but it looked to me and those around that he was taken out off the ball. Certainly that is what most of the LI team thought. Just as with the forward pass at Wasps that time they all stopped and looked at the referee. In the meantime Lemi, one of the sharpest cookies in the Premiership, dances round what is left of our defence and scores a try. Strange converts and we are now behind for the first time 11 - 16.

Bristol's confidence surged as our went down the pan. They had another try disallowed, correctly, by the TV referee but now had their tails up. The killer blow came with 12 minutes on the clock. Barry failed to find touch with a penalty from our 22. It was returned with interest and, courtesy of a lucky bounce, went into touch. From the lineout, ours was a mess by this stage, a maul was formed with us in possession. Somehow we lost this and Bris spread the ball wide and went down in the corner. Jason Strange made the conversion, we had lost the game.

Our pressure in the closing stages arguably deserved a (penalty) try but it was not to be. We were in the end well beaten by the better side.

Catty's kicking aside and reasonable performances by Dodge and Skuse aside I struggle to take positives from this game. We should have buried Bristol by half time but our indiscipline in attack cost us dear. Once their tails were up early in the second half we looked clueless, particularly in the forwards. Even those who are regular critics of Big Bob must have noticed how he was missed on field.

There are other issues. As Skippy says in his program notes "We have lost the element of surprise we enjoyed last season". Opponents now know that our lineout, with conventional throws, is as mean as they get. They are now throwing short or long. Our scrumaging continues to be poor so we are now largely being denied ball possession from set pieces. Without this our backs, who still look good despite at times sloppy ball handling, have no platform to work from.

I'm worried that confidence is now drained from the team. I hope I'm wrong.

 

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