Oh Holy God!

The crowd included 2 coachloads of Quins Supporters who had heard of the cancellation of their game at Bristol whilst en route down the M4. They jinxed us; it was all their fault!

The day started long before the rugby with lots of related things going on: there was an air raid siren to test and Jarrod Joke Books to be distributed to the various outlet points throughout the ground. Clive Doyle, Safety Officer at the Stadium and his man with the decibel meter declared that as the siren made 99dB of noise at 6 feet distance, it was fine so long as PaddyG became Billynomates in the North Stand. How cold was it over there, Paddy?

I had a report of the JC Joke book sales topping 160 in the East Stand Concourse before he game had started, well done to all concerned.

Well, it may be All Saints Day on Friday, but by the fourth minute when Grayson had slotted his second penalty of the day to leave Irish trailing 0-6, we were praying hard. It looked like a stuffing was on the cards when just 4 minutes later it was 0-9. Never mind that the first penalty was awarded straight from the kick off against Naka for blocking, Mr. Leyshon was setting his stall out early. This was a mysterious decision to Conor O’ Shea too. Mr. Leyshon was to be the subject of many a “Lander you’re a pillock” over the next 80 minutes and got a resounding booing from the West Stand Contingent on his departure from the field.

“Defensively, we can only praise the guys, but there is a lack of precision in the attacking 22”, said Conor O’ Shea, London Irish Director of Rugby after the game. “We will be practising getting that precision on the training ground this week. I’m not sure if it the mindset that needs to change, as we seem to be able to get the territory but then look to lay it off to Sheasby or others to do the rest”.

There was a bit of a Press clamour regarding the Doc’s tackle on Blowers that resulted in Blowers going off. Although neither Conor nor Wayne Smith saw the alleged incident. Wayne Smith said, “I take it from the tone of the question you are referring to leading with the elbow as a point of contact. We know that Irish like to use that as a technique and it is down to the referee to look for it and take any action he deems necessary. In my opinion, it is a dangerous technique”.

On a day when the pre-match conversation was of the high winds and whether the game would be won as a forwards battle, it was (perhaps) surprising that all of the Irish scores emanated from the boot of Everitt and all but one for Saints from the boot of Grayson.

To paraphrase Stuart Barnes, “Brendan Venter must be some sort of human missile”. The Doc was steaming today, there does seem to be something about this fixture that gets him going. I would love to see his tackle stats for this game. He was everywhere.

Kidzilla performed magnificently winning several lineouts against the throw and securing those that were thrown to him. His tackling and loose play workrate is excellent too. Bob could struggle to get back at this rate. Naka didn’t have a great throwing game and several of his throw-ins went astray. We will forgive him as his all round game and workrate were top class.

Remember last season when we had a Welsh hero named Steve Williams who never got a mention in the Press but was solid in the lineout and superb around the park? Well, he’s still the same, but he’s now wearing a Saints shirt. “It was strange running out at the Madejski in the opposition colours, but I got a great welcome from the Irish fans”, Steve commented after the game, “I didn’t think that we played particularly well but I’m pleased with my performance”. So you should be, Steve. I commented that it wouldn’t have done his Welsh prospects any harm either. “I’m pretty laid back about that, if it comes, it comes. Right now, I’m enjoying playing for Saints”. On the game itself, “it wasn’t a great game, we played into the hands of Irish, especially in the second half, I think we did exactly what they wanted us to do. It was quite windy, but at least the ball was dry. It wasn’t as bad as it would have been at probably any other stadium in the country”.

The major talking point amongst the supporters after the game was the Everitt “missed” drop goal. The players were celebrating, the supporters were celebrating, but the referee signalled it wide. It wasn’t mentioned at the Press Conference.

It took Irish until the 21st minute to register their first score through the first of Everitts’ 4 penalties of the afternoon. It must have been the siren blaring just prior that set us off. On that subject, the crowd volume and co-ordinated singing does seem to be getting better and louder with the advent of the drum corps.

Kieron Dawson and Paul Gustard enjoyed their afternoons, big tackles going in all over the shop contributed to Saints not being able to get consistent phases of play going. The highlight of Kieron's day must have been the huge cleaance kick from outside our 22 to take play to 10M from the Saints line.

Neither side managed to get multiple phases of play going but Saints always looked the more dangerous going forward. After Irish had stopped the first attempted rolling maul, Saints got it together and used this tactic to gain territory throughout the rest of the game. Despite this, there was really only one time when Saints looked like crossing the line in the second half.

Matt Dawson was at his gobby best throughout, giving Mr. Leyshon guidance at every opportunity. Some of Mr. Leyshons signals are indecipherable. There was speculation that a penalty to Saints was awarded for Attacking with Intent, a new offence, apparently.

The only try of the game came just before half time. A pressure kick from Beal had Bishop chasing into the corner in front of the West Stand (South end) where he was penalised for holding on to the ball. There followed a copycat try from Twickenham, straight cross field kick to Cohen, who easily won the ball despite attention from Horak and fell over the line to score. Grayson missed the conversion. Half time 6-14.

Justin Bishop must have borrowed Richard Reed’s explosive-packed boots for the second half. The boy was on fire and made innumerable important tackles in both 22’s in the second period. One of the more memorable being the big hit on Beal that resulted in a penalty to Irish for Beal holding on. 9-14, 44 minutes played.

The final score of the game came in the 50th minute, once the front row replacements had both come on. Worsley for Beefy followed by Hardwick for Halford. The penalty having been awarded for not rolling away.

Irish took a long time to cotton onto the fact that each time they popped the ball over the top into the centre of the park, it was causing Saints loads of grief. Especially when Bish and Gussie were chasing everything and getting the tackles in, the territory was seldom secured and turnover ball was the order of the day. For the most part, neither out half was having much joy finding touch consistently. The ball just wanted to bounce back infield.

The centre of the park and the Saints 22 saw the most action for the remaining 30 minutes with Bishop terrorising at every opportunity. Given the possession, Irish should really have won this game, but failed to convert possession into points. A sterling job done in defence by Beal, Cohen and Ripol who didn’t look too special but performed well under pressure.

Strudders had a very solid game; nicked lineouts, put some big hits in and nursed Grayson into the Nurse at one stage. Sheasby was solid but perhaps lacking match fitness. He went off having gone down injured, but all is well according to Conor.

“We are becoming very difficult to play against again”, commented O’ Shea.

All in all, good performances all round but we never looked like scoring a try despite the lions share of the possession especially in the second half. Giving away 9 points inside the first 4 minutes is never the smartest move against any Premiership side. Mike Horak was yellow-carded right at the end for not rolling away from where the ruck had formed.

“We wanted to win this game so badly, it affected our overall performance today”, commented Wayne Smith, “the performance was on a par to the last time we came here, not great, but we leave with 4 points. It was ugly but beautiful, we came to play like Tarzan but ended up playing like Jane. Irish were swarming all over us, they give you no space to operate in. Winning away is always good but winning here is better. Our performance dropped today compared to the games against Wasps, Ulster and Biarritz, let’s hope it is just a blip”.

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