It was the first time my family and I had watched a game from the expensive seats at the Madejski, and it is certainly different from our usual location by the drummers. To start with, I was the only person wearing a wig. Also, everyone was very quiet for most of the game. Even the drummers were quieter than usual, as this time there were only three drums in the stadium.

The Newcastle team surfaces in their white away kit that resembles England’s one and our boys follow them into the pitch. Both teams are advertising, on their shirts, companies that have hit the news recently for having more cash-flow problems than Basra’s Burger King in the middle of the Holy Month of Ramadan.

We all stand and clap for one minute to play a tribute to the great Jarrod Cunningham, who died earlier this summer after a long fight against motor neurone disease. Jarrod’s dad was invited to the game and was very moved by our tribute to his son.

Newcastle had many of their stars away in France, playing this tournament that Mary and Glen went to see. I felt like after paying good money to see the Beatles, it turns up that half of them are dead and the other half are too old and rich to care. Aussie legend Matthew Burke is not what he used to be and New Zealand star Mark Sorenson came second best in the second row fight.

Let me tell you now about the game. For any of you who have written a match report before, you will understand how hard it is to take notes and follow the game at the same time. It is even harder when your 4 year old daughter sitting next to you says that she wants to write as well, especially when I had borrowed her drawing pad to take notes. First minute of the game, we are awarded a penalty for pulling down the jumper at the line out. Staunton narrowly misses the kick 40 mts out. Then we have a full back tennis encounter between Burke and Topsy that goes on for a couple of minutes until Delon eventually finds touch. My notes get a bit blurry to read now, but it is all about Irish putting a lot of pressure in the set pieces, stealing balls at Newcastle’s line out and even getting the ball against the head in the scrum.

My daughter is really enjoying my steak and kidney pie. I bet Mary and Glen don’t enjoy these gastronomical treasures in France!

We get awarded a penalty in front of the posts for hands in the ruck. JS takes the easy three points. 11 minutes gone, 3-0.

Pretty bad defensive kick from JS, earning only 10 yards from our own 22. What’s this, a drinks break? Nobody seems to be on the ground injured, but Bob Casey tells Ben Woods what he thinks of him.

We get turnover ball from a huge De Vedia tackle who, in my opinion, had a great game.

My notes keep going about huge pressure on Newcastle’s scrums, quick ball sent to the backs, who eventually waste good chances.

Newcastle can’t cope with our pressure in the set pieces and try to feed the scrums, which was noticed by referee Sean Davey. Their tactics in the line out are throwing in as quickly as possible to the back, which in some cases does not seem to work, either.

The Irish pack enjoy a few phases a yard or two away from the North West corner try line, with Faan eventually getting the try. So props are not stupid, just a bit lazy when it comes to shaving! JS misses the tricky conversion, so 8-0 to us with 18 minutes being played.

Delon controls the ball well after a hospital pass from Shane, who still seems out of touch, as he hasn’t been able to play much rugby this summer. Finally someone shouts “Iiiiiiiiiiiiirish!!!” from the West Stand, but my wife keeps complaining because it is too quiet and she’d rather be with the sun in her eyes, but having more fun with the drummers.

I don’t know if referee Sean Davey is a teacher, but he is telling a player off with one hand on his back and pointing a finger with the other hand. I can’t hear what he is saying, but it could be something like: “I am going to tell your parents.”

After a great Irish scrum, JS puts Mark Ireland for the try, but he drops it over the try line. Irish were playing advantage from a Newcastle penalty, so JS takes the pleasure in putting us 11-0 up.

My notes go on about bad kicking from both full backs, who just can’t find touch. Eventually, on the 32nd minute, Dodge gets quick ball from a powerful Irish scrum, chases his own kick and deserves the lucky bounce to get the try. JS faces another hard conversion from the North West corner and misses. 16-0 to Irish.

The last five minutes of the first half are all about a comedy of errors, with both sides not taking advantage of clear chances to score. Great tackles from De Vedia and Kennedy make sure that we do not concede any points before half time.

I join the smokers outside the hotel entrance, who seem more concerned about this tournament in France than what may happen in the second half. Christine and Robbie decide to go to the hotel to watch the all greys against the all greys, but the TV is showing the football, so they come back to the West Stand for the second half. When I got home later that night I watched that game, and I don’t know if Marie put magic mushrooms in the Bolognese, but I couldn’t really tell who was who.

Alec and others that I saw at half time were talking about the possible bonus try that we should get today. Nobody thought that we could get less than 40 points today, and after losing at least one point the previous week this time we had to go for the kill. Newcastle had looked really poor in the first half.

We had a more aggressive Newcastle in the second half, but just more aggressive, not better. Sorenson was penalised for unnecessary abuse of the boot against an Irish player that was lying on the ground in the tackle area, but to my surprise didn’t get a yellow card.

Geraghty came off for Nils after having a poor game. Other changes were Fury for Dodge, Roche for Bob Casey, Tonga for Faan, Steffon for Spud. The speaker got most of the names right, but blamed his notes when he eventually cocked up, to the uncontrolled laughter of all the West Stand supporters.

Irish dominate all aspects of the game and enjoy 80% possession and 80% territory, but our own handling errors rather than a great Newcastle defence meant that only three points were scored in the second half, even with Newcastle having Dillon in the bin for 10 minutes after stopping an Irish quick tap and go. 19-0 was good, but I left disappointed that Delon, Topsy, Shane and Mordt didn’t show their killer instinct and always chose the wrong option when they got to the red zone. They always say that the forwards win the game and the back determine for how much, but our backs took pity on all the Northern Rock victims and didn’t want to cause any more damage. Faan was named man of the match, although it could have been a magnificent Hodgson (in my opinion) or any other forward.

Debutant Casey Dunning finished the game in style with a quick turnover and a 40 yard sprint in the last minute of the game, only to notice that none of his team mates were supporting his run, and got injured in the tackle. He needed assistance for several minutes after the game was over and I hope that he will be ok for next week, as I really want to see more of this guy, who will prove that props are not stupid.

I joined a few others for the Craic with Dun The Veil, which was quite enjoyable. Let’s hope that once this tournament in France, Cardiff and Edinburgh is over we can see all our supporters and all our players working together to celebrate a great season.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon