Leicester Down Irish; Oh no they didn't..!!
By Mickey Mouse
December 28 2006
In one of the best defensive displays of the season, Irish prevent Leicester from running away in a game they could well have won had the other team had the rub of the green
December 28 2006
In one of the best defensive displays of the season, Irish prevent Leicester from running away in a game they could well have won had the other team had the rub of the green
Christmas is over, plenty of Turkeys have been slaughtered throughout the land in the name of flatulence, and our usual Christmas/New Years fixture brings with us a bumper crowd, and somehow the people who make up the fixture list bring us another team that we will struggle to beat... Same as every year, along with our Paddy's Day fixture come to think of it, why do we always get opponents we have no chance of beating on our big attendance games?! Do the powers that be want us to fail that badly?!?
So after leaving the festivities round the parents, it's off back home. In no small part due to the amount of smoke that fills the family abode, you need an Iron Lung to survive there more than a few hours, the Irish match was a good excuse to leave the parents early, and the Reading away game being on the TV's in the stadium gave us an excuse to get there even earlier and get a parking spot - seeing as public transport was non-existent.
A couple of hours later and after being surprised by the sheer volume of Chelsea fans located in Reading, which has it's own football team, it was on to the match. In spite of our recent wins against Northampton, Ulster & Worcester, I had this down as a certain loss. Even with Leicester’s rotated squad, they have such strength in depth that I felt they'd be too much for us.
There were a number of positional question marks due to late fitness tests, I noted these as Geraghty @ 10, Mordt making a welcome return from injury @ 13 and Ojo @ 14. Unfortunately I switched from my usual East Stand spot to the West for this game and found myself in the corner, so seeing names/numbers from this vantage point was a bit of a struggle! Both teams filled out on the pitch and David Rose started the game. After a quick bit of ping pong, a line out on half way was awarded to Irish, which we won - this was such a surprise to me after the past few games (especially Cardiff) that I wrote this bit down...!
38 mins, after the line-out was won, Irish spun the ball wide, quick passes and offloads from Mapasua to Geraghty to Armitage back to Geraghty gave us a try! Wonderful offloading from Irish! Geraghty misses the conversion, but at least we won't be beaten for nothing!
Irish 5-0 Leicester
36 mins, After a few rucks in our 22, Goode kicks a cross field kick, but it's too far and leads to a Leicester knock on. Good defence from Irish.
32 mins, Leicester awarded a penalty for some random arm waving according to Mr Rose. Luckily Goode scuffs the kick and it harmlessly whizzes past the posts.
30 mins, Leicester launch an attack into the Irish 22 and after some good phases of play, the ball is held up over the line. The resultant scrum is pushed back so far that Irish recycle the ball! Excellent work from the forwards results in the ball being punted down-field to clear our lines. A little ping-pong ensues eventually Geraghty kicks the ball straight to Leon Lloyd who spends a little too long deciding what to do with it before being tackled by Geraghty. Irish get a penalty, presumably for holding on which Geraghty slots between the posts.
Irish 8-0 and Leicester pressure so far contained... But it's only early, we always lose these games don't we...!
23 mins, After spending much of the time in our 22, Leicester score a well worked try from the backs involving dummy runners and multiple hands, there was a hint of two forward passes, but the touch judges & ref are in a much better position than I. Goode misses kick.
Irish 8-5 Leicester
21 mins, after a little ping pong, Armitage launches a massive up & under and practically steals the ball from the Leicester receiver, runs like the wind and nearly scores a try. Leicester are pinged for something and Geraghty slots the penalty from under the posts.
Irish 11-5 Leicester
18 mins, on our 10m line, Leicester are pinged for coming in the side of a ruck, Hodgson looks up and makes a quick tap & go, it should be noted that this tap & go wasn't taken from the exact spot to the millimetre that the infringement was made, however Mr Rose has had a good game and allowed the game to flow, so off Hodgson runs into the Leicester half, he offloads to Bishop who draws in the last defender and offloads at just the right time to Ojo who runs under the posts uninterrupted, another try for Irish! Garghty makes the conversion.
Irish 18-5 Leicester
11 mins, after a long period of pressure from Leicester, they score a try by Corry using the tried and tested Leicester Catch & Drive (tm) method. There's not much Irish can really do to counter this legally, so Smithy will have to ponder these sort of tries in the long run... Goode misses the difficult touch-line conversion.
Irish 18-10 Leicester
The rest of the half was relatively uneventful other than an amusing kick to the corner by Goode that was sliced so horribly it went from our 10m line straight to the dead ball line... Goode wasn't having a good day with the boot, but was a very effective 10 at either rate. At half time, rather amusingly an advert on the telly pronounced:
"Ever wanted to kick like Andy Goode?"
"Ever wanted to run like Topdy Ojo?"
Oh well, 1 out of 2 ain't bad :-p
Whilst both teams scored two tries, Leicester had significant amounts of possession, I saw on a telly that Leicester had 76% possession in the first half! Now while they've got the ball there's not a lot we can do about it unless they make mistakes, which they weren't. Conversely, in spite of that pressure, Irish were doing an extremely good job and being legal, there were very few penalties from either team, good discipline from both sides, and wonderful defence from Irish. Back to the game!
37 mins, after a scrum Geraghty misses a catch from Hodgson, the ball is punted down field and the backs launch a typical passing run, eventually dropped by their 12, phew!
35 mins, penalty to Leicester from coming in the side, Goode slots the kick
Irish 18-13 Leicester, I guess this will be the start of the Leicester come back, we always lose these games remember...
33 mins, Irish get into the Leicester half for the first time due to a line-out 5m into their half. That lasts a whole minute.
28 mins, Lewis Moody makes yet another fantastic break, he's been the Leicester man to beat all game so far.
27 mins, First time Irish have possession due to a knock on by Leicester. A large round of substitutes is make on both sides. But we're still in our own half.
24 mins, Geraghty makes a break from half way line to beat 4/5 defenders, unfortunately this seems such a suprise to his Irish team mates that no one's run with him, only just noticing that there's a whole additional 50 meters past the line they were standing around...!
20 mins, a bit of argy bargy leads to an Irish penalty which is a bit past Garaghty's range. It's to be Geraghty's last action of the game as he's subbed for Barry the Boot, probably and astute idea. However, Barry's introduction leads to a fresh surge of ideas and impetuous from Irish. After a few phases of play, the ball is spread from a ruck on one side of the pitch all the way to the other side where mini-Armitage, who is now on the field in place of Roach, gratefully receives the ball to score a try! Excellent work, the only time Irish were in the Leicester 22 in the entire second half leads to a good try. Barry misses the tricky touchline conversion.
Irish 23-13 Leicester, hang on a sec, that's not in the script..!? We're not supposed to score a try, we always lose these games...!
12 mins, 4th official used for first time of the match to adjudicate on a push over try - which was not awarded. I wonder what the result of this would have been should this game not have been televised..?? Immediately after a Leicester line-out goes straight to Moody who has been unstoppable so far, and wasn't stopped this time. Good try. Goode yet again misses a kick...
Irish 23-18 Leicester
7 mins, after some tense phases of play, Leicester are pinged for not rolling away. Barry assuredly slots the penalty to create an 8 point gap to give us some breathing space.
Irish 26-18 Leicester
4 mins, Goode has a penalty awarded on the half way line, dead in the centre - those who were here last season for this fixture will remember that we lost the game due to his 2/3 kicks from his own half - I fully expected him to make this kick and whilst the kick had the length, it did not have the direction.
0 mins, TRY! Leicester score a push over try which was awarded by the video ref, the earlier question remains of would this have been awarded if the game wasn't televised - I would have said yes to both to be honest.
So, that was it! We actually beat Leicester Tigers..!!! Well, some nay-sayers would say we didn't win this game, Leicester lost it by Goode having a bad day at the office. Well yes, you'd be right, but consider that Goode won this fixture last season with some audacious kicking from his own half, also bear in mind the games last season like our home Sale fixture where we would have won if we had a high percentage kicker on the pitch.
For me the key thing for this game was Irish's stunning defence, and I mean absolutely stunning. Consider the second half we were practically camped in our own half for the entire 40 minutes, the only time we were in their 22, we came out with a try. This was a truly awesome performance, if we can maintain that level of intensity with lesser teams we can certainly do something this season.
My man of the match goes to a David Rose. He may have been the referee, but he kept his whistle quiet unless absolutely necessary, this resulted in both sides playing an attractive game with very very few infringements. Neither team got frustrated and allowed the good game of Rugby to be played, well done Mr Rose!!
So after leaving the festivities round the parents, it's off back home. In no small part due to the amount of smoke that fills the family abode, you need an Iron Lung to survive there more than a few hours, the Irish match was a good excuse to leave the parents early, and the Reading away game being on the TV's in the stadium gave us an excuse to get there even earlier and get a parking spot - seeing as public transport was non-existent.
A couple of hours later and after being surprised by the sheer volume of Chelsea fans located in Reading, which has it's own football team, it was on to the match. In spite of our recent wins against Northampton, Ulster & Worcester, I had this down as a certain loss. Even with Leicester’s rotated squad, they have such strength in depth that I felt they'd be too much for us.
There were a number of positional question marks due to late fitness tests, I noted these as Geraghty @ 10, Mordt making a welcome return from injury @ 13 and Ojo @ 14. Unfortunately I switched from my usual East Stand spot to the West for this game and found myself in the corner, so seeing names/numbers from this vantage point was a bit of a struggle! Both teams filled out on the pitch and David Rose started the game. After a quick bit of ping pong, a line out on half way was awarded to Irish, which we won - this was such a surprise to me after the past few games (especially Cardiff) that I wrote this bit down...!
38 mins, after the line-out was won, Irish spun the ball wide, quick passes and offloads from Mapasua to Geraghty to Armitage back to Geraghty gave us a try! Wonderful offloading from Irish! Geraghty misses the conversion, but at least we won't be beaten for nothing!
Irish 5-0 Leicester
36 mins, After a few rucks in our 22, Goode kicks a cross field kick, but it's too far and leads to a Leicester knock on. Good defence from Irish.
32 mins, Leicester awarded a penalty for some random arm waving according to Mr Rose. Luckily Goode scuffs the kick and it harmlessly whizzes past the posts.
30 mins, Leicester launch an attack into the Irish 22 and after some good phases of play, the ball is held up over the line. The resultant scrum is pushed back so far that Irish recycle the ball! Excellent work from the forwards results in the ball being punted down-field to clear our lines. A little ping-pong ensues eventually Geraghty kicks the ball straight to Leon Lloyd who spends a little too long deciding what to do with it before being tackled by Geraghty. Irish get a penalty, presumably for holding on which Geraghty slots between the posts.
Irish 8-0 and Leicester pressure so far contained... But it's only early, we always lose these games don't we...!
23 mins, After spending much of the time in our 22, Leicester score a well worked try from the backs involving dummy runners and multiple hands, there was a hint of two forward passes, but the touch judges & ref are in a much better position than I. Goode misses kick.
Irish 8-5 Leicester
21 mins, after a little ping pong, Armitage launches a massive up & under and practically steals the ball from the Leicester receiver, runs like the wind and nearly scores a try. Leicester are pinged for something and Geraghty slots the penalty from under the posts.
Irish 11-5 Leicester
18 mins, on our 10m line, Leicester are pinged for coming in the side of a ruck, Hodgson looks up and makes a quick tap & go, it should be noted that this tap & go wasn't taken from the exact spot to the millimetre that the infringement was made, however Mr Rose has had a good game and allowed the game to flow, so off Hodgson runs into the Leicester half, he offloads to Bishop who draws in the last defender and offloads at just the right time to Ojo who runs under the posts uninterrupted, another try for Irish! Garghty makes the conversion.
Irish 18-5 Leicester
11 mins, after a long period of pressure from Leicester, they score a try by Corry using the tried and tested Leicester Catch & Drive (tm) method. There's not much Irish can really do to counter this legally, so Smithy will have to ponder these sort of tries in the long run... Goode misses the difficult touch-line conversion.
Irish 18-10 Leicester
The rest of the half was relatively uneventful other than an amusing kick to the corner by Goode that was sliced so horribly it went from our 10m line straight to the dead ball line... Goode wasn't having a good day with the boot, but was a very effective 10 at either rate. At half time, rather amusingly an advert on the telly pronounced:
"Ever wanted to kick like Andy Goode?"
"Ever wanted to run like Topdy Ojo?"
Oh well, 1 out of 2 ain't bad :-p
Whilst both teams scored two tries, Leicester had significant amounts of possession, I saw on a telly that Leicester had 76% possession in the first half! Now while they've got the ball there's not a lot we can do about it unless they make mistakes, which they weren't. Conversely, in spite of that pressure, Irish were doing an extremely good job and being legal, there were very few penalties from either team, good discipline from both sides, and wonderful defence from Irish. Back to the game!
37 mins, after a scrum Geraghty misses a catch from Hodgson, the ball is punted down field and the backs launch a typical passing run, eventually dropped by their 12, phew!
35 mins, penalty to Leicester from coming in the side, Goode slots the kick
Irish 18-13 Leicester, I guess this will be the start of the Leicester come back, we always lose these games remember...
33 mins, Irish get into the Leicester half for the first time due to a line-out 5m into their half. That lasts a whole minute.
28 mins, Lewis Moody makes yet another fantastic break, he's been the Leicester man to beat all game so far.
27 mins, First time Irish have possession due to a knock on by Leicester. A large round of substitutes is make on both sides. But we're still in our own half.
24 mins, Geraghty makes a break from half way line to beat 4/5 defenders, unfortunately this seems such a suprise to his Irish team mates that no one's run with him, only just noticing that there's a whole additional 50 meters past the line they were standing around...!
20 mins, a bit of argy bargy leads to an Irish penalty which is a bit past Garaghty's range. It's to be Geraghty's last action of the game as he's subbed for Barry the Boot, probably and astute idea. However, Barry's introduction leads to a fresh surge of ideas and impetuous from Irish. After a few phases of play, the ball is spread from a ruck on one side of the pitch all the way to the other side where mini-Armitage, who is now on the field in place of Roach, gratefully receives the ball to score a try! Excellent work, the only time Irish were in the Leicester 22 in the entire second half leads to a good try. Barry misses the tricky touchline conversion.
Irish 23-13 Leicester, hang on a sec, that's not in the script..!? We're not supposed to score a try, we always lose these games...!
12 mins, 4th official used for first time of the match to adjudicate on a push over try - which was not awarded. I wonder what the result of this would have been should this game not have been televised..?? Immediately after a Leicester line-out goes straight to Moody who has been unstoppable so far, and wasn't stopped this time. Good try. Goode yet again misses a kick...
Irish 23-18 Leicester
7 mins, after some tense phases of play, Leicester are pinged for not rolling away. Barry assuredly slots the penalty to create an 8 point gap to give us some breathing space.
Irish 26-18 Leicester
4 mins, Goode has a penalty awarded on the half way line, dead in the centre - those who were here last season for this fixture will remember that we lost the game due to his 2/3 kicks from his own half - I fully expected him to make this kick and whilst the kick had the length, it did not have the direction.
0 mins, TRY! Leicester score a push over try which was awarded by the video ref, the earlier question remains of would this have been awarded if the game wasn't televised - I would have said yes to both to be honest.
So, that was it! We actually beat Leicester Tigers..!!! Well, some nay-sayers would say we didn't win this game, Leicester lost it by Goode having a bad day at the office. Well yes, you'd be right, but consider that Goode won this fixture last season with some audacious kicking from his own half, also bear in mind the games last season like our home Sale fixture where we would have won if we had a high percentage kicker on the pitch.
For me the key thing for this game was Irish's stunning defence, and I mean absolutely stunning. Consider the second half we were practically camped in our own half for the entire 40 minutes, the only time we were in their 22, we came out with a try. This was a truly awesome performance, if we can maintain that level of intensity with lesser teams we can certainly do something this season.
My man of the match goes to a David Rose. He may have been the referee, but he kept his whistle quiet unless absolutely necessary, this resulted in both sides playing an attractive game with very very few infringements. Neither team got frustrated and allowed the good game of Rugby to be played, well done Mr Rose!!
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