Nice Quins - who knew ?
By Griff December 11 2007
Quite possibly the biggest game so far this season saw USAP (Union Sportive Arlequins Perpignan) visit in round 3 of the Heineken Cup. A win would see Irish sitting pretty at the top of Pool 1, a loss would allow USAP to overtake and take pole going into the tricky return fixture.
Quite possibly the biggest game so far this season saw USAP (Union Sportive Arlequins Perpignan) visit in round 3 of the Heineken Cup. A win would see Irish sitting pretty at the top of Pool 1, a loss would allow USAP to overtake and take pole going into the tricky return fixture.
The Catalan folks arrived in Reading on a bitterly cold, drizzly, windy day - not exactly the perfect welcome. Not to worry, the many who visited from Perpignan brought their best spirits, they were without exception in my (and other's reported) experience a friendly and gracious bunch - the away trip will be mighty I expect.
Expectation was high, we knew if were given the room to play as we were by Newport and Treviso then we could cut-loose and leave the visitors in the starting-blocks. It seems that the USAP management and team knew this too. From the off and throughout the game their blitz defence was superb, we got no time on the ball. Early forays saw little possession or territory for the Exiles and a "Blood and Gold" clad pack who were keen to slow our ball down and give their own backs the opportunity to cut-loose. Soon the visitors had forced Irish off their feet at the ruck and first blood came to USAP in the form of a penalty ably kicked by full-back Jérôme Porical.
The Irish didn't seem phased by this, a sign of strength against a powerful team who quite clearly had the ability to hurt us. The home side simply regrouped and tried to work out how to win the battle on the ground they had, thus far, lost. Discipline was good and the single penalty remained the only score for a while. During this time, however, USAP showed less restraint and were repeatedly called to task by Scottish referee Malcolm Changleng. A break-away by Irish down the right was pulled down illegally; the subsequent move took Irish into the USAP 22 where number 8 replacement Gerrie Britz decided to give his lads a bit of time to recover by flopping onto the ball. The initial penalty could easily have been carded, the subsequent one was and Britz left the field for 10 minutes. Peter Hewat added the points to level the score.
Irish hardly ever seem to capitalise on an extra-man, we always seem far too polite to take the advantage, not so today as good passages of play were put together pushing the visitors back. A pin-point cross-field kick by Catt was caught by a lone defender who was unceremoniously ushered into touch to give the home-side a critical line-out. USAP had already stolen one of ours and so proved that, while we may be good at the aerial stuff we're not invincible. Fortunately for us the previous move had left the USAP blindside Viliami Vaki stranded in our half receiving treatment. Fifteen against thirteen hardly seems fair but the points count just as much however many defenders there are. The catch and drive from the line-out was text-book and captain Big Bob Casey crashed-over for a fine score (clearly Nick has been ribbing him about their disparity this season...). Sadly Bob and the pack didn't have the presence-of-mind to crab wildly to their left and make the conversion a bit easier for Peter, he missed.
The visitors weren't done, though, they worked tirelessly tackling and, given half a chance, counter-attacking to good effect. That Porical had a crack at a penalty from within their half, though, demonstrates how successful they felt. The long-pot missed but a bit more pressure gave an easier, and more successful effort shortly afterwards.
The Exiles obviously thought that this tactic of attempting all kicks was a good one, a long-range effort (not quite in our half but close) was pushed slightly wide by Delon a further slightly shorter one fell short and right for Hewat.
Mr Changleng was to attract the ire of both sets of supporters and at the end of the second half it was the home support questioning his decision. A USAP forward tried to get the ball to "take a quick line-out" - he wouldn't have done it there were too many defenders around. David Paice had hold of the pill on the ground where he'd been driven out. The USAP player decided that a dose of "shoe" was the best way to get the ball and promptly stamped on David. Young master Paice, epitome of composure that he is, stood up while still holding the Perpignan player's foot and then whilst in-between Mr Changleng and his touch-judge calmly "lamped" his aggressor.
Until that moment it could easily have been a yellow card for the USAP chap but David was the one who got the bin, quite rightly. A bit of balance might have seen the ref take the other guy off too but USAP had already seen yellow. To rub our noses in it the calm M. Porical added his third penalty of the match so far with the last kick of the half. Another of our the Scot's quirks, we'd been on the field at this moment exactly 40 minutes - there had certainly been some injury time, not to mention the occasional chat from the ref to captains and two yellow cards but no time added. Roll-on count-down clocks for the ERC...
Half-time: Irish 8 - 9 USAP
As a completely one-eyed home supporter you felt slightly aggrieved, well I did. We'd certainly put a good few good moves together, scored a try, USAP hadn't really worried our defence and yet they were ahead and we faced the first ten minutes of the second half without our hooker. Funny old game.
It got "funnier", Irish struggled manfully to hold the visitors while Paicey was off. Kieran Roche was sacrificed to make way for Stuart Mackie to hook and we missed his "oomph" at the breakdown. The visitors were rampant and, while we held them for 7 minutes the pressure, eventually, told.
A fine cross-field kick found USAP left-wing Adrien Plante in miles of space. The kick was just too far ahead to catch but Plante calmly controlled the ball with an out-stretched leg and chased the resultant ball to touch-down in goal. A fine try and one that had the green horde worried. The USAP full-back continued his steady day with the boot by adding the extras.
Heads could easily have dropped for Les Vertes, they had tried very hard and were coming very second at this point. They didn't drop, though and Irish attempted to get their game going again. In a common theme for the afternoon Richard chipped-and-chased and was brought down, adjudged late by Mr Changleng. The resultant penalty, from where the ball landed about 40m out gave Peter Hewat a further penalty. It wasn't lost yet!
With Rochey and Paicey back Irish further cemented their position and enjoyed their best passage of play of the game. Constantly hounding the USAP defence and pushing ever-closer to the line the Irish tried to find parity. The Perpignan side's only response was to try and kill the ball, repeatedly.
One of a series of forays close to the visitors’ goal-line yielded yet-another advantage for a ruck-offence. Quick thinking very nearly brought the try-of-the season. A shot-to-nothing chip into the in-goal saw Delon leaping like a salmon to beat the two defenders to the ball. He couldn't quite control it and knocked-on instead of achieving immortality. and we went back to the origianl penalty.
After further hands-in, coming-over-the-top and around-the-side shenanigans the referee finally became irritated enough to bin the USAP lock Kairelis and Irish used the penalty to get a good attacking lineout.
Almost a carbon-copy of the first-half lineout that resulted in Big Bob's try saw Irish, predictably, catch and drive. There was then the moment for Mr Changleng to receive the annoyance of the USAP travellers. The French coach called the penalty try "scandalous", an unnamed reporter in the Telegraph called it "dubious". I hope both take time to review a video of what was, to my mind, a text-book example of what penalty tries are for.
The USAP team first took the maul on head-on. Two players clearly hung off the front to stop progress but the maul continued. Two more players then popped-round the side to drive a wedge into the Irish pack, in doing so they jogged past Mr Changleng. Two such clear penalties were enough for the ref to trot between the posts and give the try. Once Peter Hewat had taken the easiest extras of the day, Mr Changleng then trotted back to Nicolas Mas to yellow card him for his part in the penalty.
Had USAP simply let the maul continue the score was not clear, we've all seen maul attempts not given by unsighted referees. Even had the try been scored the conversion from the far right had proven elusive for Peter and the scores may have been level. USAP would have had 14 men too, now they had 13 for 7 minutes...
Here is my only criticism of London Irish for the day. They played those 7 minutes SO poorly. Just as Harlequins had done against Ospreys in the EDF cup the previous week Irish seemed to lose their heads when faced with a two-man advantage. When the situation called for by-the-numbers rugby which would surely have yielded holes in the visiting defence Irish chose, time-and-again to kick possession away with a high-ball. I suppose with numbers advantage your odds of catching the high-ball are increased but more patience, to my mind, would have put the game safe.
As it was the only near-score of the period of disparity was a long-shot attempt for M. Porical that dropped short.
Once balance had been restored it all got a bit frantic. USAP were really quite keen to take the points and only some truly desperate defence and a large slice of luck kept them out. One quite incredible piece of skill took Peter Richards to God status in the minds of many of the home-support. A worryingly good cross-field kick arched towards the left wing again, almost a copy of the USAP try, but this time Richards' out-stretched hand caught the ball before it could reach the speedster. The blonde-tressed scrum-half only had the presence-of-mind to call the mark too... sublime.
Following that Richards could do no wrong, a further blistering run from him was ended only by a high-tackle and Hewat gratefully took the chance to put Irish more-than-a-penalty clear.
The visitors didn't give-up but Irish, calmly, kept them at bay. A few heart-stopping moments aside the home team closed the game down. Finally at the dying moment of the half Mr Changleng firmly wrote himself off the Perpignan Christmas-card list by awarding a kickable penalty. By stroking it between the posts Peter Hewat took away even a consolation bonus point and the USAP pain was complete.
Even faced with such a soul-crushing disappointment the visiting support were, to a man and woman, a credit to their club. They chatted, they drank, they sang and danced when they must have truly wanted to just go home. We've all been there, hating the whistle-blower and feeling truly hard-done to.
I hope when they get a chance to reflect they'll realise that their team simply tried too hard to "play the ref". He wasn't in the mood to be messed-around, a previous week's assessor had, apparently, told Malcolm to ping more, so he did. In a rare event Irish "played" a referee better than their opposition, well done Bob and the boys.
So now we face the return trip. It feels ever-so-slightly like the Ulster pair last year but without the animosity (despite the USAP disappointment and anger at the ref). Then we had to visit a "pressure-cooker" away ground having given the opposition a "doing". I have a feeling the game next week will be something like the fabulous away game at Agen two years ago - hard, uncompromising and violent in a way that only the French can muster. I hope the out-come is the same. Whatever the result you'll hear all the details from our roving reporter.
Over to you Jeep.
Expectation was high, we knew if were given the room to play as we were by Newport and Treviso then we could cut-loose and leave the visitors in the starting-blocks. It seems that the USAP management and team knew this too. From the off and throughout the game their blitz defence was superb, we got no time on the ball. Early forays saw little possession or territory for the Exiles and a "Blood and Gold" clad pack who were keen to slow our ball down and give their own backs the opportunity to cut-loose. Soon the visitors had forced Irish off their feet at the ruck and first blood came to USAP in the form of a penalty ably kicked by full-back Jérôme Porical.
The Irish didn't seem phased by this, a sign of strength against a powerful team who quite clearly had the ability to hurt us. The home side simply regrouped and tried to work out how to win the battle on the ground they had, thus far, lost. Discipline was good and the single penalty remained the only score for a while. During this time, however, USAP showed less restraint and were repeatedly called to task by Scottish referee Malcolm Changleng. A break-away by Irish down the right was pulled down illegally; the subsequent move took Irish into the USAP 22 where number 8 replacement Gerrie Britz decided to give his lads a bit of time to recover by flopping onto the ball. The initial penalty could easily have been carded, the subsequent one was and Britz left the field for 10 minutes. Peter Hewat added the points to level the score.
Irish hardly ever seem to capitalise on an extra-man, we always seem far too polite to take the advantage, not so today as good passages of play were put together pushing the visitors back. A pin-point cross-field kick by Catt was caught by a lone defender who was unceremoniously ushered into touch to give the home-side a critical line-out. USAP had already stolen one of ours and so proved that, while we may be good at the aerial stuff we're not invincible. Fortunately for us the previous move had left the USAP blindside Viliami Vaki stranded in our half receiving treatment. Fifteen against thirteen hardly seems fair but the points count just as much however many defenders there are. The catch and drive from the line-out was text-book and captain Big Bob Casey crashed-over for a fine score (clearly Nick has been ribbing him about their disparity this season...). Sadly Bob and the pack didn't have the presence-of-mind to crab wildly to their left and make the conversion a bit easier for Peter, he missed.
The visitors weren't done, though, they worked tirelessly tackling and, given half a chance, counter-attacking to good effect. That Porical had a crack at a penalty from within their half, though, demonstrates how successful they felt. The long-pot missed but a bit more pressure gave an easier, and more successful effort shortly afterwards.
The Exiles obviously thought that this tactic of attempting all kicks was a good one, a long-range effort (not quite in our half but close) was pushed slightly wide by Delon a further slightly shorter one fell short and right for Hewat.
Mr Changleng was to attract the ire of both sets of supporters and at the end of the second half it was the home support questioning his decision. A USAP forward tried to get the ball to "take a quick line-out" - he wouldn't have done it there were too many defenders around. David Paice had hold of the pill on the ground where he'd been driven out. The USAP player decided that a dose of "shoe" was the best way to get the ball and promptly stamped on David. Young master Paice, epitome of composure that he is, stood up while still holding the Perpignan player's foot and then whilst in-between Mr Changleng and his touch-judge calmly "lamped" his aggressor.
Until that moment it could easily have been a yellow card for the USAP chap but David was the one who got the bin, quite rightly. A bit of balance might have seen the ref take the other guy off too but USAP had already seen yellow. To rub our noses in it the calm M. Porical added his third penalty of the match so far with the last kick of the half. Another of our the Scot's quirks, we'd been on the field at this moment exactly 40 minutes - there had certainly been some injury time, not to mention the occasional chat from the ref to captains and two yellow cards but no time added. Roll-on count-down clocks for the ERC...
Half-time: Irish 8 - 9 USAP
As a completely one-eyed home supporter you felt slightly aggrieved, well I did. We'd certainly put a good few good moves together, scored a try, USAP hadn't really worried our defence and yet they were ahead and we faced the first ten minutes of the second half without our hooker. Funny old game.
It got "funnier", Irish struggled manfully to hold the visitors while Paicey was off. Kieran Roche was sacrificed to make way for Stuart Mackie to hook and we missed his "oomph" at the breakdown. The visitors were rampant and, while we held them for 7 minutes the pressure, eventually, told.
A fine cross-field kick found USAP left-wing Adrien Plante in miles of space. The kick was just too far ahead to catch but Plante calmly controlled the ball with an out-stretched leg and chased the resultant ball to touch-down in goal. A fine try and one that had the green horde worried. The USAP full-back continued his steady day with the boot by adding the extras.
Heads could easily have dropped for Les Vertes, they had tried very hard and were coming very second at this point. They didn't drop, though and Irish attempted to get their game going again. In a common theme for the afternoon Richard chipped-and-chased and was brought down, adjudged late by Mr Changleng. The resultant penalty, from where the ball landed about 40m out gave Peter Hewat a further penalty. It wasn't lost yet!
With Rochey and Paicey back Irish further cemented their position and enjoyed their best passage of play of the game. Constantly hounding the USAP defence and pushing ever-closer to the line the Irish tried to find parity. The Perpignan side's only response was to try and kill the ball, repeatedly.
One of a series of forays close to the visitors’ goal-line yielded yet-another advantage for a ruck-offence. Quick thinking very nearly brought the try-of-the season. A shot-to-nothing chip into the in-goal saw Delon leaping like a salmon to beat the two defenders to the ball. He couldn't quite control it and knocked-on instead of achieving immortality. and we went back to the origianl penalty.
After further hands-in, coming-over-the-top and around-the-side shenanigans the referee finally became irritated enough to bin the USAP lock Kairelis and Irish used the penalty to get a good attacking lineout.
Almost a carbon-copy of the first-half lineout that resulted in Big Bob's try saw Irish, predictably, catch and drive. There was then the moment for Mr Changleng to receive the annoyance of the USAP travellers. The French coach called the penalty try "scandalous", an unnamed reporter in the Telegraph called it "dubious". I hope both take time to review a video of what was, to my mind, a text-book example of what penalty tries are for.
The USAP team first took the maul on head-on. Two players clearly hung off the front to stop progress but the maul continued. Two more players then popped-round the side to drive a wedge into the Irish pack, in doing so they jogged past Mr Changleng. Two such clear penalties were enough for the ref to trot between the posts and give the try. Once Peter Hewat had taken the easiest extras of the day, Mr Changleng then trotted back to Nicolas Mas to yellow card him for his part in the penalty.
Had USAP simply let the maul continue the score was not clear, we've all seen maul attempts not given by unsighted referees. Even had the try been scored the conversion from the far right had proven elusive for Peter and the scores may have been level. USAP would have had 14 men too, now they had 13 for 7 minutes...
Here is my only criticism of London Irish for the day. They played those 7 minutes SO poorly. Just as Harlequins had done against Ospreys in the EDF cup the previous week Irish seemed to lose their heads when faced with a two-man advantage. When the situation called for by-the-numbers rugby which would surely have yielded holes in the visiting defence Irish chose, time-and-again to kick possession away with a high-ball. I suppose with numbers advantage your odds of catching the high-ball are increased but more patience, to my mind, would have put the game safe.
As it was the only near-score of the period of disparity was a long-shot attempt for M. Porical that dropped short.
Once balance had been restored it all got a bit frantic. USAP were really quite keen to take the points and only some truly desperate defence and a large slice of luck kept them out. One quite incredible piece of skill took Peter Richards to God status in the minds of many of the home-support. A worryingly good cross-field kick arched towards the left wing again, almost a copy of the USAP try, but this time Richards' out-stretched hand caught the ball before it could reach the speedster. The blonde-tressed scrum-half only had the presence-of-mind to call the mark too... sublime.
Following that Richards could do no wrong, a further blistering run from him was ended only by a high-tackle and Hewat gratefully took the chance to put Irish more-than-a-penalty clear.
The visitors didn't give-up but Irish, calmly, kept them at bay. A few heart-stopping moments aside the home team closed the game down. Finally at the dying moment of the half Mr Changleng firmly wrote himself off the Perpignan Christmas-card list by awarding a kickable penalty. By stroking it between the posts Peter Hewat took away even a consolation bonus point and the USAP pain was complete.
Even faced with such a soul-crushing disappointment the visiting support were, to a man and woman, a credit to their club. They chatted, they drank, they sang and danced when they must have truly wanted to just go home. We've all been there, hating the whistle-blower and feeling truly hard-done to.
I hope when they get a chance to reflect they'll realise that their team simply tried too hard to "play the ref". He wasn't in the mood to be messed-around, a previous week's assessor had, apparently, told Malcolm to ping more, so he did. In a rare event Irish "played" a referee better than their opposition, well done Bob and the boys.
So now we face the return trip. It feels ever-so-slightly like the Ulster pair last year but without the animosity (despite the USAP disappointment and anger at the ref). Then we had to visit a "pressure-cooker" away ground having given the opposition a "doing". I have a feeling the game next week will be something like the fabulous away game at Agen two years ago - hard, uncompromising and violent in a way that only the French can muster. I hope the out-come is the same. Whatever the result you'll hear all the details from our roving reporter.
Over to you Jeep.
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StumbleuponRe: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: AlecW (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:11:07:12:26
Very good report, Griff!
Re: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: Babs (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:11:07:41:17
Gutted!
Thought you'd wrtten about me, darling!
Thought you'd wrtten about me, darling!
Re: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: ascotintheantipodes (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:11:08:15:41
Great read Griff - nailbiting result as usual, but also the result we wanted.
It will be interesting to see Perpignan's tactics next week, will they play open rugby with the will to win or will they try to intimidate and dominate
It will be interesting to see Perpignan's tactics next week, will they play open rugby with the will to win or will they try to intimidate and dominate
Re: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: richfitz (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:11:08:20:47
That is an excellent report and mirrors my own view of the game.
'Sadly Bob and the pack didn't have the presence-of-mind to crab wildly to their left and make the conversion a bit easier for Peter, he missed.'
You should send that to Bob.
'Sadly Bob and the pack didn't have the presence-of-mind to crab wildly to their left and make the conversion a bit easier for Peter, he missed.'
You should send that to Bob.Re: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: Props are not stupid (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:11:09:41:08
The best match report I have read in ages, and very fair as well, in my honest opinion. But how on earth did you manage to play the drums and take notes at the same time?
Well done Griff.
Well done Griff.
Re: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: bisach (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:11:09:43:35
We were told not to bang the drums while Griff was speaking into his dictaphone (or whatever). That's why there were lots of silences from the drummers.
Re: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: Griff (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:11:09:49:57
As I explain in my "How to write a match report" I use the voice-recorder on my mobile (currently an= Nokia N95 but I've had the feature available for about 5 years). It's good because it time-stamps the notes for you and keeps them in order.
We still need Wuss at the MadStad and Tigers away covered this year folks. It'd be nice to get volunteers before I have to come begging...
Bill isn't lying about the drums, though
We still need Wuss at the MadStad and Tigers away covered this year folks. It'd be nice to get volunteers before I have to come begging...
Bill isn't lying about the drums, though
Re: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: Loobs (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:11:17:59:58
I actually thought the drummers had their best game of the season on Sunday. Managed to get some atmosphere going. The gaps actually heighten the effect, less is more and all that.
Re: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: Foggy-Balla (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:11:20:57:13
And I thought it was because of my complete lack of talent, rythm etc... Well, OK it was, but I'm only learning.
Faugh-a-Ballagh!
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in his shoes.
That way if he gets angry, he'll be a mile away and barefoot.
Faugh-a-Ballagh!
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in his shoes.
That way if he gets angry, he'll be a mile away and barefoot.
Re: Nice Quins - who knew ?
Posted by: AMS (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:12:00:15:45
Foggy - you were on AG time, perhaps?
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