Mission Impossible
By Griff
February 19 2010
It was always a big ask. To take on Bath at any time is tough, no matter how pants their early season has been. To take them on during the Six Nations while Irish have three of their first names on the sheet with England was going to be really tough. With Chris Hala'ufia suspended and the immense Irish injury list this was Mission Impossible.
February 19 2010
It was always a big ask. To take on Bath at any time is tough, no matter how pants their early season has been. To take them on during the Six Nations while Irish have three of their first names on the sheet with England was going to be really tough. With Chris Hala'ufia suspended and the immense Irish injury list this was Mission Impossible.
It's a credit to the progress made by London Irish in recent weeks, months and years that anyone thought we'd win this. With the absentee list so long the men-in-green started the game with two 19 years olds, Tom Homer at full-back and James Gibson in the back-row. That is incredibly young for the Guinness Premiership - a tough league at the best of times. Irish, it's fair to say were going to need the rub-of-the-green.
The match started looking ominously like both teams were going to fall into the current malaise of Rugby Union kicking tennis. Neither side seemed to want to run the ball, but it was Irish who first started to try and put phases together. A shallow kick from Tom Homer bounced badly for Abendanon in mid-field and the ginger youngster chased fantastically stripping it from the ex-England full-back and recycling it. The ball was then moved out to the left finding Elvis Seviali'i who broke and passed inside. The touch judge called him in touch before the pass was made but the TJ was very wrong. The pass was a bit wild but it could easily have led to Irish's first score. Perhaps the rub-of-the-green was too much to ask...
Instead it was Bath to score first shortly afterwards, Captain Bob Casey rather cutely taking the ball out of the scrum-half's hands from the bottom of a ruck. I'm sure Bob has got away with many of these and was probably a bit miffed that referee Sean Davey spotted it. Ryan Davis made the kick for an early lead.
Irish levelled soon after with Bath failing to roll-away from a tackle. There was an audible sigh of relief from the stands as Tom Homer stepped-up to take the penalty, I suspect he sighed relief when he popped the kick over.
With ten minutes gone Irish looked good, they were playing the brighter rugby and trying lots of stuff, much of which was working. George Stowers in particular was having a field day making ground and setting the ball up for the backline.
The horror began during the thirteenth minute. Bath pushing fairly aimlessly forward are spurred on by a great run from Joe Maddock on the right wing. He passed the ball inside very similarly to Elvis' earlier run but wasn't adjudged to have gone in touch and Bath set-up a ruck over the loose ball. Just when it seemed Irish had the defensive line to cover it David Barnes picked-up and noticed the massive hole in the middle, the prop cantered over for an easy score which Ryan Davis converted.
Almost immediately Tom Homer pegged-back another 3 with Bath coming off-side at the ruck. Sadly this was repaid immediately on the restart with Irish blocking for the catcher.
More horror next, Irish gathered their restart and set-up an attacking position. Bath's defence held firm and Irish forced the play. Chris Malone's pass was so telegraphed I was 40 yards away and I considered intercepting it. As it was Matt Banahan did and ran in for a second soft try and another conversion for Davis.
With the scoreline looking ominous Irish continued to play and Bath continued to defend well. The home-side, though, started to make unforced errors with the weight of the pressure they'd put themselves under. Peter Hewat losing the ball in contact only 5 yards short of the Bath line, Seilala Mapusua pushing a mid-field pass forward, knocks-on in the ruck, all allowed Bath to pile the pressure on and push Irish back to their line.
An ambitious Bath kick gave Irish a lineout on their own 5m line and, for some reason, David Paice threw it long. Now, I understand the whole long-lineout-on-your-5 idea, your back-line is only 5m away from the catcher whereas theirs is at least 15 (in theory) but it puts everyone under pressure and Irish were already rocking. One bad throw and it all gets a bit messy. And so it was. Bath steal the ball, spread it wide left and then back right and Joe Maddock has a try in the corner. At least Davis missed the kick but Irish now had it all to do.
The visitors' tails were now well and truly up and Bath seemed to be able to win the ball at will and thee force through the Irish defence again and again. The Exiles simply needed half-time to come so they could regroup but there were several minutes still to come. The home defence did manage to hold-firm, albeit with a slight scare when Ryan Davis failed to control the ball once he was through and clear for a try. The whistle blew with the score Irish 6 - 25 Bath.
Tom Homer pulled-back 3 points early in the second half after Bath were called off-side. The initial knock-on, TV replays showed, came from James Gibson but none of the home-support were complaining.
The game then went back into the kicking-tennis routine for a while with neither team really making ground. After ten minutes Toby had clearly seen enough of Chris Malone. With Homer taking the place-kicks and Malone having and absolute mare many of the support would have replaced Molly in the first half. Ryan Lamb replaced him just as Tom Homer, ironically, missed for the first time - a penalty out wide.
Ryan's arrival seemed to spur the Exiles on and Bath seemed to have switched-off a little. All the play for a little while was with the home-side and Bath gave another penalty when Duncan Bell took Alfredo Lallane out before he'd picked the ball up from a ruck. Despite Mr Davey looking like he'd card the Bath tight-head he simply gave him a talking-to and Tom slotted the points.
Bath could've pushed-on with Ryan Davies missing two fairly easy penalties but instead Abendanon failed under a high-ball and Matt Banahan made a mad pass out of the back of his hand on Bath's 22m. The loose ball was kicked forward by Jamie Gibson and the openside desperately tried to out-run the Bath blindside, Ben Skirving. The TMO was called-in and spotted the defender touching the ball-down but it was mightily close. A few centimetres closer to Gibson and this could easily have turned the game.
From the drop-out Bath killed the ball in the ruck and Homer slotted yet another penalty.
Bath seemed woken-up by the new score and forged forwards. A fantastic push from the forwards was finished-off by Michael Classens only for one of the touch-judges to spot Duncan Bell holding a player on the ground during the play. The try was disallowed and Bell got yet another talking-to but remained, incredibly, on the pitch. Sean Davey didn't seem to like the TJ's decision and was almost apologetic to Abendanon and Bell.
A few minutes later the referee decided to even things up a little. Faan Rautenbach handled on the ground and Sean Davey, despite Faan not having been penalised at all so far in the game and despite Mr Davey having had to talk to Faan's opposite number twice. The man-in-pink produced a yellow card and Faan got a sit-down. Ryan Davis took the 3 points.
The man-difference told fairly quickly, Bath won the ball and spun it out wide. Sadly, Tom Homer, so excellent for the whole game, failed on a one-on-one tackle and Joe Maddock went in on the right wing. Ryan Davis took the extras and Irish's fate was sealed.
The visitors now went into top gear and put in attack after attack. Irish did very well to just about hold the rampant west-countrymen out. Incredibly having weathered many waves of Bath Irish began to fight back too. A move out from a ruck on the halfway line saw a failed interception attempt by try-braceman Joe Maddock allowed Tom Homer a couple of yards on the left wing. Homer showed incredible pace and vision to step inside the Bath defender and touch-down. It was no more than the youngster deserved and he converted his own score.
Sean Davey insisted play continue despite Bath's valiant efforts to run the clock-down before the restart. Irish spurred-on tried hard to get another try and a losing BP but it wasn't to be.
The match ended London Irish 22 - 35 Bath.
Apologies for the tardiness of this report, we'd not noticed we didn't have a reporter and I'm afraid I couldn't face watching it again until yesterday - at which point the admin server decided to crash.
That said the re-watch wasn't quite the horror story I remembered from the stadium. Irish were in it most of the way and if it wasn't for a couple of decisions and fortunes going against them this could easily have been a different story. Without the two gifted tries heads wouldn't have dropped and the game would've been very different.
The youngsters did as well as we could expect. Tom Homer was better than the rest of the team combined and was easily our man of the match. Jamie Gibson had a tougher day but he has less experience than Tom and is playing in a role where his lack of years and bulk make a huge difference. It was partially in the back-row that we lost this game but Jamie will have come-away tougher and more canny - he'll be better next time.
Of the rest of the team I think most played O.K. Peter Hewat didn't have his best game but really isn't a winger. Chris Malone will simply want to forget this game and Alfredo Lallane will need to go over a lot of the play to learn. For me our main reason was the 9/10 access not firing. Ryan Lamb didn't add much but by the time he came on we were already in damage-limitation mode.
It is a shame the run came to an end but if you look at the circumstances there are many reasons for the loss. This was, sadly, the first GP game since 8th March 2008 when Irish failed to come at least within 7 points of the opposition. It was an impressive record - let's hope the lads want to better it, starting at Kingston Park.
The match started looking ominously like both teams were going to fall into the current malaise of Rugby Union kicking tennis. Neither side seemed to want to run the ball, but it was Irish who first started to try and put phases together. A shallow kick from Tom Homer bounced badly for Abendanon in mid-field and the ginger youngster chased fantastically stripping it from the ex-England full-back and recycling it. The ball was then moved out to the left finding Elvis Seviali'i who broke and passed inside. The touch judge called him in touch before the pass was made but the TJ was very wrong. The pass was a bit wild but it could easily have led to Irish's first score. Perhaps the rub-of-the-green was too much to ask...
Instead it was Bath to score first shortly afterwards, Captain Bob Casey rather cutely taking the ball out of the scrum-half's hands from the bottom of a ruck. I'm sure Bob has got away with many of these and was probably a bit miffed that referee Sean Davey spotted it. Ryan Davis made the kick for an early lead.
Irish levelled soon after with Bath failing to roll-away from a tackle. There was an audible sigh of relief from the stands as Tom Homer stepped-up to take the penalty, I suspect he sighed relief when he popped the kick over.
With ten minutes gone Irish looked good, they were playing the brighter rugby and trying lots of stuff, much of which was working. George Stowers in particular was having a field day making ground and setting the ball up for the backline.
The horror began during the thirteenth minute. Bath pushing fairly aimlessly forward are spurred on by a great run from Joe Maddock on the right wing. He passed the ball inside very similarly to Elvis' earlier run but wasn't adjudged to have gone in touch and Bath set-up a ruck over the loose ball. Just when it seemed Irish had the defensive line to cover it David Barnes picked-up and noticed the massive hole in the middle, the prop cantered over for an easy score which Ryan Davis converted.
Almost immediately Tom Homer pegged-back another 3 with Bath coming off-side at the ruck. Sadly this was repaid immediately on the restart with Irish blocking for the catcher.
More horror next, Irish gathered their restart and set-up an attacking position. Bath's defence held firm and Irish forced the play. Chris Malone's pass was so telegraphed I was 40 yards away and I considered intercepting it. As it was Matt Banahan did and ran in for a second soft try and another conversion for Davis.
With the scoreline looking ominous Irish continued to play and Bath continued to defend well. The home-side, though, started to make unforced errors with the weight of the pressure they'd put themselves under. Peter Hewat losing the ball in contact only 5 yards short of the Bath line, Seilala Mapusua pushing a mid-field pass forward, knocks-on in the ruck, all allowed Bath to pile the pressure on and push Irish back to their line.
An ambitious Bath kick gave Irish a lineout on their own 5m line and, for some reason, David Paice threw it long. Now, I understand the whole long-lineout-on-your-5 idea, your back-line is only 5m away from the catcher whereas theirs is at least 15 (in theory) but it puts everyone under pressure and Irish were already rocking. One bad throw and it all gets a bit messy. And so it was. Bath steal the ball, spread it wide left and then back right and Joe Maddock has a try in the corner. At least Davis missed the kick but Irish now had it all to do.
The visitors' tails were now well and truly up and Bath seemed to be able to win the ball at will and thee force through the Irish defence again and again. The Exiles simply needed half-time to come so they could regroup but there were several minutes still to come. The home defence did manage to hold-firm, albeit with a slight scare when Ryan Davis failed to control the ball once he was through and clear for a try. The whistle blew with the score Irish 6 - 25 Bath.
Tom Homer pulled-back 3 points early in the second half after Bath were called off-side. The initial knock-on, TV replays showed, came from James Gibson but none of the home-support were complaining.
The game then went back into the kicking-tennis routine for a while with neither team really making ground. After ten minutes Toby had clearly seen enough of Chris Malone. With Homer taking the place-kicks and Malone having and absolute mare many of the support would have replaced Molly in the first half. Ryan Lamb replaced him just as Tom Homer, ironically, missed for the first time - a penalty out wide.
Ryan's arrival seemed to spur the Exiles on and Bath seemed to have switched-off a little. All the play for a little while was with the home-side and Bath gave another penalty when Duncan Bell took Alfredo Lallane out before he'd picked the ball up from a ruck. Despite Mr Davey looking like he'd card the Bath tight-head he simply gave him a talking-to and Tom slotted the points.
Bath could've pushed-on with Ryan Davies missing two fairly easy penalties but instead Abendanon failed under a high-ball and Matt Banahan made a mad pass out of the back of his hand on Bath's 22m. The loose ball was kicked forward by Jamie Gibson and the openside desperately tried to out-run the Bath blindside, Ben Skirving. The TMO was called-in and spotted the defender touching the ball-down but it was mightily close. A few centimetres closer to Gibson and this could easily have turned the game.
From the drop-out Bath killed the ball in the ruck and Homer slotted yet another penalty.
Bath seemed woken-up by the new score and forged forwards. A fantastic push from the forwards was finished-off by Michael Classens only for one of the touch-judges to spot Duncan Bell holding a player on the ground during the play. The try was disallowed and Bell got yet another talking-to but remained, incredibly, on the pitch. Sean Davey didn't seem to like the TJ's decision and was almost apologetic to Abendanon and Bell.
A few minutes later the referee decided to even things up a little. Faan Rautenbach handled on the ground and Sean Davey, despite Faan not having been penalised at all so far in the game and despite Mr Davey having had to talk to Faan's opposite number twice. The man-in-pink produced a yellow card and Faan got a sit-down. Ryan Davis took the 3 points.
The man-difference told fairly quickly, Bath won the ball and spun it out wide. Sadly, Tom Homer, so excellent for the whole game, failed on a one-on-one tackle and Joe Maddock went in on the right wing. Ryan Davis took the extras and Irish's fate was sealed.
The visitors now went into top gear and put in attack after attack. Irish did very well to just about hold the rampant west-countrymen out. Incredibly having weathered many waves of Bath Irish began to fight back too. A move out from a ruck on the halfway line saw a failed interception attempt by try-braceman Joe Maddock allowed Tom Homer a couple of yards on the left wing. Homer showed incredible pace and vision to step inside the Bath defender and touch-down. It was no more than the youngster deserved and he converted his own score.
Sean Davey insisted play continue despite Bath's valiant efforts to run the clock-down before the restart. Irish spurred-on tried hard to get another try and a losing BP but it wasn't to be.
The match ended London Irish 22 - 35 Bath.
Apologies for the tardiness of this report, we'd not noticed we didn't have a reporter and I'm afraid I couldn't face watching it again until yesterday - at which point the admin server decided to crash.
That said the re-watch wasn't quite the horror story I remembered from the stadium. Irish were in it most of the way and if it wasn't for a couple of decisions and fortunes going against them this could easily have been a different story. Without the two gifted tries heads wouldn't have dropped and the game would've been very different.
The youngsters did as well as we could expect. Tom Homer was better than the rest of the team combined and was easily our man of the match. Jamie Gibson had a tougher day but he has less experience than Tom and is playing in a role where his lack of years and bulk make a huge difference. It was partially in the back-row that we lost this game but Jamie will have come-away tougher and more canny - he'll be better next time.
Of the rest of the team I think most played O.K. Peter Hewat didn't have his best game but really isn't a winger. Chris Malone will simply want to forget this game and Alfredo Lallane will need to go over a lot of the play to learn. For me our main reason was the 9/10 access not firing. Ryan Lamb didn't add much but by the time he came on we were already in damage-limitation mode.
It is a shame the run came to an end but if you look at the circumstances there are many reasons for the loss. This was, sadly, the first GP game since 8th March 2008 when Irish failed to come at least within 7 points of the opposition. It was an impressive record - let's hope the lads want to better it, starting at Kingston Park.
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Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 19/02/2010 12:50
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Re: Mission Impossible
Posted by: Props are not stupid (IP Logged)
Date: 19/02/2010 13:50
Griff's reports are always great to read, thanks very much.
Re: Mission Impossible
Posted by: persins (IP Logged)
Date: 22/02/2010 11:42
Good work Griff!
Fair play for putting a positive spin on it as it's far too easy to come down heavily on the team.
Fair play for putting a positive spin on it as it's far too easy to come down heavily on the team.
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