Shark!
At Least it was Warm
Shark!
By DrV'sHairyCraic
October 16 2006
Good whether & a little bit of optimism filled the Madstad in the minutes prior to kick off. “It’s gonna be close, but we can do this” was the gist of the comments I heard as I enjoyed a pre-match beer in town.
Shark!
October 16 2006
Good whether & a little bit of optimism filled the Madstad in the minutes prior to kick off. “It’s gonna be close, but we can do this” was the gist of the comments I heard as I enjoyed a pre-match beer in town.
A bit of Shark baiting on the bus built up the confidence even more - I must have been believing my own hype!
Sale came on to the pitch soon to be followed by Neil Hatley wearing the number 175 to celebrate an amazing achievement in such a demanding position. The standing ovation passed & the game got underway.
Irish started the game with the normal kick 15m forward for the loosies to chase down. As many times before, Roche was 1st to the ball but couldn’t quite control it. This led to the 1st of many scrums in the opening exchanges & it was very clear to the 9,102 (official attendance) supporters that the scrums were going to be highly contested & extremely feisty. More than once, the front rows stood up to each other before resetting.
The game was only 2mins old when Irish started to show how the day was going to go for them when they made the 1st of far too many knock-ons to finish off a good move.
And it was only 3 minutes later when Sale started to show how the day was going to go for them when they made the 1st of far too many multiphase plays to move them slowly but surely up the pitch & into our 22.
A couple of minutes further into the game & Sale had a penalty 5m out. A quick take was easily quashed but somehow it led to an amazing hat-trick for Coetzee – His 3rd yellow card in as many games. He was penalised for not releasing which, under the circumstances, was just plain dumb as the Sale player was isolated & another LI player was on his feet & trying to get the ball.
But anyway, Mr Barnes had made the 1st of many contentious decisions & Charlie Hodgson easily made it 3-0 to the Sharks.
An LI line out shortly afterwards was lost – I never noticed at the time but I heard afterwards that the line out was taken by Rees. If true, the blame for the lost line out can’t really be placed on him. But given the fact that most of his passes on Sunday were either too high or too low, well, who knows.
An LI scrum a minute or so later led to Paice coming on & Magne having to leave the pitch. A minute or so too late??? The scrum was wheeled & Sale had the put in. The resulting phases poured through a terrible Irish defence. Missed tackles and the most jagged defensive line imaginable made things extremely easy for the Sharks. The defence was well and truly broken & the Sharks had a 3 man overlap on the right. Tagi, though aware of the overlap & of Cueto lurking on the wing had to stay in close. Robinson, noting the position of the remaining defence, kicked to the corner. Cueto caught & just managed to get the ball down before the dead ball line despite Tagi’s best efforts to cover.
13 minutes in and the successful conversion made it 10-0 to Sharks.
A few minutes later & the home support were exposed to one of Wayne Barnes’ many deficiencies. A ruck had formed & LI made the initial gains. The Sale forwards who had been bypassed stayed in the ruck to pull the LI pack backwards. They got away with it & soon realised that Barnes was never going to pull any of them for this. So they did it all day. Can’t say I blame them really. The ref never stopped them & nor did we.
Coetzee returned but things were going to get worst before getting better. A couple of minutes of reasonable Irish play was, yet again, brought to a halt by some unforced handling errors. This time it was a pass by Magne to Flutey’s boot laces that led to a crunching tackle & knock on. The resulting pick up and quick hands by the Sharks led to a very easy try by Mark Taylor. An easy conversion by Hodgson made it 17-0 to the visitors.
A penalty to Irish led to a line out. For what seemed like the 1st time, Irish won clean ball & Rees quickly released the backs. Tagickibau chose a fantastic line through midfield & sliced through the Sale defence. His try just to the right of the uprights was easily converted & hope was restored.
But alas, it wasn’t long before hopes were dashed & it was the normal service that was restored & Sale were unlucky not to score. The overlap was wasted by a forward pass (yes Barnes can notice them sometimes) wasting what would have been an easy run in by Cueto.
The half finished as is started. Yet another turn over to Sale punished by a demonstration of good handling, fast recycling from the tackle area & another try. This time to Oriol Ripol.
Half time couldn’t come too soon. And at 7-24 down, we were hoping that Brian & Toby would be having harsh words & re-organising.
Well it did happen & the defence was tighter in the 2nd half. The ball control was as bad as ever but at least we were able to contain more of what was thrown at us.
Shane Geraghty came on for Flutey who was suffering from an earlier knock – the tackle that led to the 3rd try???
Despite saying that things were tighter defensively, it really was more of the same. Good moves wasted, Barnes letting the Sale forwards stray offside, LI getting penalised for not releasing when Sale were lying all over it.
But let’s keep the ref’s performance in perspective here. I’m sure that the Sharks supporters can mention many infringements that were missed. I can myself. It just seemed as if the Sharks players read the ref better & made the most of his inadequacies.
A brief summary of the second half would be that Sale wasted 2 good try scoring opportunities. Sale turned Irish over far too often and good Irish moves were wasted far more often than quashed – usually by offloads into nowhere – another day & there might have been a player there in support, but not on that day.
It wasn’t all rubbish though – believe it or not. There was some good stuff. Good lines & good pressure to force some very rare mistakes by the Sharks. Just not often enough!
The clock had reached the 60 min mark before the 1st point of the 2nd half came about. It was pretty much as before, the only difference being that it never came from turn over ball but phases starting from a Sale line out. Fast hands fed the ball to Ripol who found the space to put the ball down under the posts. It was now 31-7 to the visitors.
5 mins later & Steffon Armitage came on for the injured (and for once, not particularly great) Kieran Roche. I have to admit (only because it was witnessed) that I said something to a friend on the line of “he’s a liability”. I was quite rightly chastised & told to give him a chance & not judge him on one performance.
And I’m pleased to say that I was wrong. Steffon was the only player (IMHO) to show what he really can do. That might sound a bit unfair on players like Tagicakibau & Topsy who did little wrong but, Steffon did a lot that was right. This was highlighted in the 77th minute when the backs took control after initial good work by the pack. There was only one forward to support the drives by Mapusua & Tagicakibau. That was Steffon. So it was no surprise & just reward for him that he put the ball down over the line. Steffon, your apology to Brian, Toby, your fellow players & supporters for that rush of blood at Wasps is well and truly accepted.
Oh yeah, just before that, Barnes finally got fed up with Sale’s infringements & carded Chabal.
To finish (at long last), a look at the positives:
We can break the gain line as easily as ever. We just need to keep the ball.
Steffon was good.
Tagicakibau ran some great lines.
And for those of us in the East Stand, at least it was warm!
Sale came on to the pitch soon to be followed by Neil Hatley wearing the number 175 to celebrate an amazing achievement in such a demanding position. The standing ovation passed & the game got underway.
Irish started the game with the normal kick 15m forward for the loosies to chase down. As many times before, Roche was 1st to the ball but couldn’t quite control it. This led to the 1st of many scrums in the opening exchanges & it was very clear to the 9,102 (official attendance) supporters that the scrums were going to be highly contested & extremely feisty. More than once, the front rows stood up to each other before resetting.
The game was only 2mins old when Irish started to show how the day was going to go for them when they made the 1st of far too many knock-ons to finish off a good move.
And it was only 3 minutes later when Sale started to show how the day was going to go for them when they made the 1st of far too many multiphase plays to move them slowly but surely up the pitch & into our 22.
A couple of minutes further into the game & Sale had a penalty 5m out. A quick take was easily quashed but somehow it led to an amazing hat-trick for Coetzee – His 3rd yellow card in as many games. He was penalised for not releasing which, under the circumstances, was just plain dumb as the Sale player was isolated & another LI player was on his feet & trying to get the ball.
But anyway, Mr Barnes had made the 1st of many contentious decisions & Charlie Hodgson easily made it 3-0 to the Sharks.
An LI line out shortly afterwards was lost – I never noticed at the time but I heard afterwards that the line out was taken by Rees. If true, the blame for the lost line out can’t really be placed on him. But given the fact that most of his passes on Sunday were either too high or too low, well, who knows.
An LI scrum a minute or so later led to Paice coming on & Magne having to leave the pitch. A minute or so too late??? The scrum was wheeled & Sale had the put in. The resulting phases poured through a terrible Irish defence. Missed tackles and the most jagged defensive line imaginable made things extremely easy for the Sharks. The defence was well and truly broken & the Sharks had a 3 man overlap on the right. Tagi, though aware of the overlap & of Cueto lurking on the wing had to stay in close. Robinson, noting the position of the remaining defence, kicked to the corner. Cueto caught & just managed to get the ball down before the dead ball line despite Tagi’s best efforts to cover.
13 minutes in and the successful conversion made it 10-0 to Sharks.
A few minutes later & the home support were exposed to one of Wayne Barnes’ many deficiencies. A ruck had formed & LI made the initial gains. The Sale forwards who had been bypassed stayed in the ruck to pull the LI pack backwards. They got away with it & soon realised that Barnes was never going to pull any of them for this. So they did it all day. Can’t say I blame them really. The ref never stopped them & nor did we.
Coetzee returned but things were going to get worst before getting better. A couple of minutes of reasonable Irish play was, yet again, brought to a halt by some unforced handling errors. This time it was a pass by Magne to Flutey’s boot laces that led to a crunching tackle & knock on. The resulting pick up and quick hands by the Sharks led to a very easy try by Mark Taylor. An easy conversion by Hodgson made it 17-0 to the visitors.
A penalty to Irish led to a line out. For what seemed like the 1st time, Irish won clean ball & Rees quickly released the backs. Tagickibau chose a fantastic line through midfield & sliced through the Sale defence. His try just to the right of the uprights was easily converted & hope was restored.
But alas, it wasn’t long before hopes were dashed & it was the normal service that was restored & Sale were unlucky not to score. The overlap was wasted by a forward pass (yes Barnes can notice them sometimes) wasting what would have been an easy run in by Cueto.
The half finished as is started. Yet another turn over to Sale punished by a demonstration of good handling, fast recycling from the tackle area & another try. This time to Oriol Ripol.
Half time couldn’t come too soon. And at 7-24 down, we were hoping that Brian & Toby would be having harsh words & re-organising.
Well it did happen & the defence was tighter in the 2nd half. The ball control was as bad as ever but at least we were able to contain more of what was thrown at us.
Shane Geraghty came on for Flutey who was suffering from an earlier knock – the tackle that led to the 3rd try???
Despite saying that things were tighter defensively, it really was more of the same. Good moves wasted, Barnes letting the Sale forwards stray offside, LI getting penalised for not releasing when Sale were lying all over it.
But let’s keep the ref’s performance in perspective here. I’m sure that the Sharks supporters can mention many infringements that were missed. I can myself. It just seemed as if the Sharks players read the ref better & made the most of his inadequacies.
A brief summary of the second half would be that Sale wasted 2 good try scoring opportunities. Sale turned Irish over far too often and good Irish moves were wasted far more often than quashed – usually by offloads into nowhere – another day & there might have been a player there in support, but not on that day.
It wasn’t all rubbish though – believe it or not. There was some good stuff. Good lines & good pressure to force some very rare mistakes by the Sharks. Just not often enough!
The clock had reached the 60 min mark before the 1st point of the 2nd half came about. It was pretty much as before, the only difference being that it never came from turn over ball but phases starting from a Sale line out. Fast hands fed the ball to Ripol who found the space to put the ball down under the posts. It was now 31-7 to the visitors.
5 mins later & Steffon Armitage came on for the injured (and for once, not particularly great) Kieran Roche. I have to admit (only because it was witnessed) that I said something to a friend on the line of “he’s a liability”. I was quite rightly chastised & told to give him a chance & not judge him on one performance.
And I’m pleased to say that I was wrong. Steffon was the only player (IMHO) to show what he really can do. That might sound a bit unfair on players like Tagicakibau & Topsy who did little wrong but, Steffon did a lot that was right. This was highlighted in the 77th minute when the backs took control after initial good work by the pack. There was only one forward to support the drives by Mapusua & Tagicakibau. That was Steffon. So it was no surprise & just reward for him that he put the ball down over the line. Steffon, your apology to Brian, Toby, your fellow players & supporters for that rush of blood at Wasps is well and truly accepted.
Oh yeah, just before that, Barnes finally got fed up with Sale’s infringements & carded Chabal.
To finish (at long last), a look at the positives:
We can break the gain line as easily as ever. We just need to keep the ball.
Steffon was good.
Tagicakibau ran some great lines.
And for those of us in the East Stand, at least it was warm!
Bookmark or share this story with:
Digg
Delicious
Facebook
Reddit
StumbleuponSPORTNETWORK SPECIALS
More London Irish headlines
London Irish latest threads
London Irish Poll
