A Game of Four Quarters
By Billy Hamilton (“Donaghadee”) written from the comfort of his armchair February 20 2008
The kick off was delayed as, in spite of reminders on the message board, the under soil heating had not been sufficiently monitored. The switch had tripped and the area in front of the South Stand was hard. The game eventually began at 1.45pm and was preceded by a minute's silence for former LI player Pierre Durant who had died in his native south Africa.
The kick off was delayed as, in spite of reminders on the message board, the under soil heating had not been sufficiently monitored. The switch had tripped and the area in front of the South Stand was hard. The game eventually began at 1.45pm and was preceded by a minute's silence for former LI player Pierre Durant who had died in his native south Africa.
London Irish 22 Leicester 13
Sunday 17th February 2008
Both teams went into this game with a lot of expectations. The visitors wanted to build on their defeat of Gloucester and jump to the top of the table. Our aim was to continue our recent run of success by improving on our eighth place and get back into Heineken Cup contention.
From the kick off LI was on the attack and a fine move ended in Topsy Ojo reaching out for the line. The ref called for the TMO and after a long deliberation he decided that it was not a try. Looking at the replays from four angles two seem to suggest that it was a try while the other two were inconclusive. The ref then awarded us a penalty in front of the posts and Eoghan Hickey slotted the ball over to put us on the scoreboard.
From the kick off we were back on the attack and from the base of a scrum near the Leicester line Paul Hodgson passed out to Richard Thorpe who went over for the try. Hickey added the conversion to give us a 10-0 lead with less than 10 minutes played.
In those 10 minutes the visitors had not had any meaningful time in our half. Their first incursion seemed to spell doom for the Exiles. From a lineout just inside their half Andy Goode made the break. He left Irish defenders in his wake before passing inside to Ayoola Erinle who had an uninterrupted run to the posts. Goode added the conversion.
Irish were again in defence as Leicester encamped on their line in a series of rucks and penalties taken as scrums. Eventually Martin Corry came off the base of a scrum but collided with one of his own players. Irish were able to clear following the resultant scrum and breathe a huge sigh of relief. So 6 minutes of sustained Leicester pressure brought no reward.
Irish were mounted another attack when Sailosi Tagicakabau made the break out of our 22 and combined with Delon Armitage to take the ball deep into Tiger territory. A knock on gave the advantage back to the defenders.
The last 15 minutes of the half saw us in defence but unforced errors and magnificent defence combined to thwart the visitors, Leicester's frustrating afternoon continued when Goode was to miss two penalties in quick succession.
Shane Geraghty had sustained and ankle earlier in the half and had to leave 5 minutes before the interval to be replaced by Mike Catt. So whereas we had dominated the first quarter of the game the visitors held the sway in the second and we were fortunate to go into the interval with a 10-7 lead.
The third quarter was evenly shared between the sides and Goode eventually converted a penalty to level the scores. We even lost the main scuffle of the game when Nick Kennedy was penalised for raising his knees to defend himself!!
Then we dominated the final quarter of the game and forced Leicester into making errors that allowed Hickey to add another three penalties to give us a 19-10 lead. This gave him a 100% kicking record on the day and maintains his position as the most consistent kicker in the Premiership this season.
Although Goode added another penalty for the Tigers a magnificent 40-metre drop goal by Mike Catt sealed our victory and frustrated the hopes of the visitors.
Man of the match was Paul Hodgson and the Monday papers were full of expectations of him starting for England. This has not happened but can his first cap be far away.
Sunday 17th February 2008
Both teams went into this game with a lot of expectations. The visitors wanted to build on their defeat of Gloucester and jump to the top of the table. Our aim was to continue our recent run of success by improving on our eighth place and get back into Heineken Cup contention.
From the kick off LI was on the attack and a fine move ended in Topsy Ojo reaching out for the line. The ref called for the TMO and after a long deliberation he decided that it was not a try. Looking at the replays from four angles two seem to suggest that it was a try while the other two were inconclusive. The ref then awarded us a penalty in front of the posts and Eoghan Hickey slotted the ball over to put us on the scoreboard.
From the kick off we were back on the attack and from the base of a scrum near the Leicester line Paul Hodgson passed out to Richard Thorpe who went over for the try. Hickey added the conversion to give us a 10-0 lead with less than 10 minutes played.
In those 10 minutes the visitors had not had any meaningful time in our half. Their first incursion seemed to spell doom for the Exiles. From a lineout just inside their half Andy Goode made the break. He left Irish defenders in his wake before passing inside to Ayoola Erinle who had an uninterrupted run to the posts. Goode added the conversion.
Irish were again in defence as Leicester encamped on their line in a series of rucks and penalties taken as scrums. Eventually Martin Corry came off the base of a scrum but collided with one of his own players. Irish were able to clear following the resultant scrum and breathe a huge sigh of relief. So 6 minutes of sustained Leicester pressure brought no reward.
Irish were mounted another attack when Sailosi Tagicakabau made the break out of our 22 and combined with Delon Armitage to take the ball deep into Tiger territory. A knock on gave the advantage back to the defenders.
The last 15 minutes of the half saw us in defence but unforced errors and magnificent defence combined to thwart the visitors, Leicester's frustrating afternoon continued when Goode was to miss two penalties in quick succession.
Shane Geraghty had sustained and ankle earlier in the half and had to leave 5 minutes before the interval to be replaced by Mike Catt. So whereas we had dominated the first quarter of the game the visitors held the sway in the second and we were fortunate to go into the interval with a 10-7 lead.
The third quarter was evenly shared between the sides and Goode eventually converted a penalty to level the scores. We even lost the main scuffle of the game when Nick Kennedy was penalised for raising his knees to defend himself!!
Then we dominated the final quarter of the game and forced Leicester into making errors that allowed Hickey to add another three penalties to give us a 19-10 lead. This gave him a 100% kicking record on the day and maintains his position as the most consistent kicker in the Premiership this season.
Although Goode added another penalty for the Tigers a magnificent 40-metre drop goal by Mike Catt sealed our victory and frustrated the hopes of the visitors.
Man of the match was Paul Hodgson and the Monday papers were full of expectations of him starting for England. This has not happened but can his first cap be far away.
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