London Irish - Top of the evening to you!
By Trouble_gb
December 3 2008
Our little adventure to Bristol started at the White Swan where a few of the usual suspects met up to catch the supporter’s club coach to Bristol. For £10 (with LISC membership) I don’t think you can beat it ! This away trip had been organised for Maggie’s Birthday and it turned out that she wasn’t the only one who was hoping for 2 celebrations.
December 3 2008
Our little adventure to Bristol started at the White Swan where a few of the usual suspects met up to catch the supporter’s club coach to Bristol. For £10 (with LISC membership) I don’t think you can beat it ! This away trip had been organised for Maggie’s Birthday and it turned out that she wasn’t the only one who was hoping for 2 celebrations.
With a fantastic picnic, great company and a bus driver called Eroll we were on our way. For the hour and a half journey down to Brizzle, which still allowed us on arrival, enough time to sneak off for a quick pint in the local with everyone staring agog at MadMonk walking down the street. A quick pastie and a TWO pint glass of Cider, yes you heard it right TWO pints. I had never seen one of these before so treated myself and the Birthday girl and we settled in into the Centenary stand behind the Irish dug out with some of the other noisy ones!
The Irish fans were in good voice and had positioned themselves in all four sides of the ground to allow for maximum volume and we had even snuck in some of the smaller drums and bhodrans.
It was bound to be a very competitive game as Bris we hoping to haul themselves off the bottom of the table and we were in a position to be top of the premiership after the right result, which would be the first time since 1999 ! Peter Hewat opened the scoring with a penalty as the home side were penalised in the scrum this was just after he had missed one 5 mins earlier and later made it 2 out of 3. Both sides were guilty of handling errors but Irish were using the boots of both PH and Shane.
This was before an outstanding run from Sailosi who shrugged off both Lee Robinson and Shaun Perry and ran a gazelle like 40 meters to score, the conversion bounced off the left post. Making the score 11-0. Here the game turned into a battle of the wits as each side were trying to make headway, Bristol never seemed to be gaining ground and Irish had two opportunities which we missed out on which we had the overlap but the passing went astray. However our defence held strong and we didn’t concede a point making the half time score 11-0. A great point and at what stage this happened I can’t quite remember was when Lee Robinson had the ball as was running along the line towards the Irish try line he was bulldozed into touch, knocking him straight through the protective defences. That shows the intensity of the game from both sides.
At half time after consuming another pasty ( just to keep warm of course ), applying the rest of my layers and having a nice chat to some Bristol supporters and talking about their “Situation”. We went back to our positions for the 2nd half.
Richard Hill had obviously had some strong words during half time as Bristol came back out with a new lease of life. Within 2 mins Bristol had their first points from Ed Barnes after Irish were penalised for not rolling away and they were back in the game. Barnes then missed a long range drop goal but added extra points with another penalty. Bristol were definitely back in the fight !
Lemi kept the pressure on Irish with a break and passed it onto the forwards passing it to Barnes who chipped it over to Robinson in the corner. The ball ended up in the hands of Luke eves who went over for the try, this was then converted making it a nail biting 10-11.
The supporters got behind both teams trying to lift their heads as Bristol seemed determined to take the points for this one. Ed Barnes had another penalty and Bristol where in the lead 13-11. The drums were banging, and the chants of Irish got louder and louder. Plenty of time to play and Irish could still come back. With perfect timing Shane caught an interception pass from Ed Barnes and ran 50 metres to score under the posts, Hewat added the conversion 13-18. Now we just had to maintain this lead for the next 12 minutes!
Both teams dug in for the remaining time on the clock and Bristol were not giving up. They had a scrum 18 metres out from the Irish line, but we held strong and defended well and Peter Hewat cleared the threat with a long kick to touch. This pushed things back into the Bristol half and again we started attacking, Maps and Elvis looked dangerous but the ball was knocked on. Barnes had a cheeky cross field kick that was just slightly too long missing their winger and London Irish had the lineout with the clock down to 0.
Big Bob Casey secured the ball and the forwards gave it everything they had, Dodge did the honours of kicking the ball out to end the game and we all breathed a sigh of relief. The Bristol supporters was gracious in defeat and we waited for the boys to come back onto the pitch to give them a rousing cheer as not only had we won but we were top of the league !!!!
We snuck into the bar to defrost and listen to the irish band and there were some very happy faces, so yes it wasn’t a pretty game but a win is a win and the boys earnt that one.
The Irish fans were in good voice and had positioned themselves in all four sides of the ground to allow for maximum volume and we had even snuck in some of the smaller drums and bhodrans.
It was bound to be a very competitive game as Bris we hoping to haul themselves off the bottom of the table and we were in a position to be top of the premiership after the right result, which would be the first time since 1999 ! Peter Hewat opened the scoring with a penalty as the home side were penalised in the scrum this was just after he had missed one 5 mins earlier and later made it 2 out of 3. Both sides were guilty of handling errors but Irish were using the boots of both PH and Shane.
This was before an outstanding run from Sailosi who shrugged off both Lee Robinson and Shaun Perry and ran a gazelle like 40 meters to score, the conversion bounced off the left post. Making the score 11-0. Here the game turned into a battle of the wits as each side were trying to make headway, Bristol never seemed to be gaining ground and Irish had two opportunities which we missed out on which we had the overlap but the passing went astray. However our defence held strong and we didn’t concede a point making the half time score 11-0. A great point and at what stage this happened I can’t quite remember was when Lee Robinson had the ball as was running along the line towards the Irish try line he was bulldozed into touch, knocking him straight through the protective defences. That shows the intensity of the game from both sides.
At half time after consuming another pasty ( just to keep warm of course ), applying the rest of my layers and having a nice chat to some Bristol supporters and talking about their “Situation”. We went back to our positions for the 2nd half.
Richard Hill had obviously had some strong words during half time as Bristol came back out with a new lease of life. Within 2 mins Bristol had their first points from Ed Barnes after Irish were penalised for not rolling away and they were back in the game. Barnes then missed a long range drop goal but added extra points with another penalty. Bristol were definitely back in the fight !
Lemi kept the pressure on Irish with a break and passed it onto the forwards passing it to Barnes who chipped it over to Robinson in the corner. The ball ended up in the hands of Luke eves who went over for the try, this was then converted making it a nail biting 10-11.
The supporters got behind both teams trying to lift their heads as Bristol seemed determined to take the points for this one. Ed Barnes had another penalty and Bristol where in the lead 13-11. The drums were banging, and the chants of Irish got louder and louder. Plenty of time to play and Irish could still come back. With perfect timing Shane caught an interception pass from Ed Barnes and ran 50 metres to score under the posts, Hewat added the conversion 13-18. Now we just had to maintain this lead for the next 12 minutes!
Both teams dug in for the remaining time on the clock and Bristol were not giving up. They had a scrum 18 metres out from the Irish line, but we held strong and defended well and Peter Hewat cleared the threat with a long kick to touch. This pushed things back into the Bristol half and again we started attacking, Maps and Elvis looked dangerous but the ball was knocked on. Barnes had a cheeky cross field kick that was just slightly too long missing their winger and London Irish had the lineout with the clock down to 0.
Big Bob Casey secured the ball and the forwards gave it everything they had, Dodge did the honours of kicking the ball out to end the game and we all breathed a sigh of relief. The Bristol supporters was gracious in defeat and we waited for the boys to come back onto the pitch to give them a rousing cheer as not only had we won but we were top of the league !!!!
We snuck into the bar to defrost and listen to the irish band and there were some very happy faces, so yes it wasn’t a pretty game but a win is a win and the boys earnt that one.
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StumbleuponLondon Irish - Top of the evening to you!
Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 03/12/2008 12:28
London Irish - Top of the evening to you!
Re: London Irish - Top of the evening to you!
Posted by: bisach (IP Logged)
Date: 03/12/2008 12:33
Cheers trouble. The dexterity of the Tinks never ceases to amaze me. B'Day celebrations and match reports at the same time.
Re: London Irish - Top of the evening to you!
Posted by: MadMonk (IP Logged)
Date: 03/12/2008 13:48
I am impressed, all you could manage on the bus was "we won" - obviously it all came back to you later. Great report, great memories.
Re: London Irish - Top of the evening to you!
Posted by: Trouble_gb (IP Logged)
Date: 03/12/2008 13:57
Oh yes- I think the we won shortened version was what I decided after I had just remembered that I was writing the match report and yet again had not got pen or paper!!
Re: London Irish - Top of the evening to you!
Posted by: Props are not stupid (IP Logged)
Date: 03/12/2008 14:05
Well done, trouble. Obviously alhochol doesn't have an effect on your short term memory.
Re: London Irish - Top of the evening to you!
Posted by: R@L (IP Logged)
Date: 04/12/2008 13:12
Back from 3 days off.
Lovely day spoilt only later by my daughter who told me she and her friend were going outside whilst the band were playing.
Knowing what a good girls she is I said ok and told her to come back when they were cold or wanted to go home.
An hour later they arrived back at the club house and off we went to the car.
I asked them what they had been doing and was informed that they had been laying in wait for the blond number 10 to appear, they then proceeded to show me the picture they had had taken of them draped in what can only be described as a Shane Geraghty.
You can run Geraghty, but you can't hide.
That’s her last match until she is 18.
Lovely day spoilt only later by my daughter who told me she and her friend were going outside whilst the band were playing.
Knowing what a good girls she is I said ok and told her to come back when they were cold or wanted to go home.
An hour later they arrived back at the club house and off we went to the car.
I asked them what they had been doing and was informed that they had been laying in wait for the blond number 10 to appear, they then proceeded to show me the picture they had had taken of them draped in what can only be described as a Shane Geraghty.
You can run Geraghty, but you can't hide.
That’s her last match until she is 18.
Re: London Irish - Top of the evening to you!
Posted by: Trouble_gb (IP Logged)
Date: 04/12/2008 13:47
R@L - That is the funniest thing I have read for a very long time!
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