Tigers Match Review
By Paddy69
November 25 2002
“I took a call at 11.45 to say the pitch was unplayable, we took the view that we would come, have a look and hopefully we wouldn’t have any more rain” said Conor O’ Shea after the game. Boy, are we glad it wasn’t called off!
By Paddy69
November 25 2002
“I took a call at 11.45 to say the pitch was unplayable, we took the view that we would come, have a look and hopefully we wouldn’t have any more rain” said Conor O’ Shea after the game. Boy, are we glad it wasn’t called off!
The Madejski Stadium hosted it’s largest rugby crowd of the season for the visit of Leicester Tigers today, 10605 was the official attendance figure and more than half of those went home happy.
Tigers ran out in their new white away strip, so no inside-outies this time and with Rowden in Red in the middle on a grey, grey day the scene was set.
“We took Paul Gustard to one side before the game and told him to just do what he does every week on the field. We felt this was appropriate as he was really fired up for his first game against his old club. He was incredibly physical at the breakdown and secured a lot of ball for us”, added Conor, “it was a very disciplined, physical performance from Paul today”.
Indeed, as early as the kick off Gussie was making his presence felt with a big hit on Vesty to introduce him to what was going to be a hard game. Despite this, Vesty figured in just about everything Tigers did making his case for a permanent place in the team. Leicester conceded the first of many penalties just inside their half in the 2nd minute for playing the ball in front. Barry eased closer to that 1000 points mark as the cheers went up for 3-0.
O’ Sheasby caught the restart, made some yards and was brought down, only for Tigers to concede a penalty for hands on the ground, Mr. Rowden pinged a lot for this offence and I was surprised not to see a card at any point, especially given his last outing at the Madstad. Was it the fact that the TV cameras weren’t there?
Barry cleared to half way with the penalty. The lineout was secured by Nick Kennedy, who underlined his class today. As the game wore on, either Strudders or Nick were winning so much lineout ball that Tigers resorted to throwing it over the top. Where was Kieron Dawson when we needed him? He would have had a field day in the second half! This tactic is meat and drink to him.
From the lineout, the pass to Tuilagi resulted in him receiving a massive Paul Sackey softener tackle,ball spilled for another lineout, this time Irish to throw in. Young Nick secured it, out to Digby then to Barry to kick for territory (I can copy and paste that bit now, this was how it went for virtually every lineout, great to see). In this instance, Corry was pinged for offside and Barry cleared to half way again. Once again today, the touch judge’s impeccable positioning was evident as the ball rarely went any further than a metre away from where they stood when going out. I have to ponder, is it the years of experience?
We were only 6 minutes into the game and an animated Conor O’ Shea was to be seen dashing to the line, shouting instructions and making sure there was no doubt in conveying what he wanted to happen. The guys were fired up but this was matched almost blow for blow in a first half that struggled to get going in lots of ways. One thing was evident early on; the Irish defence was firing very close to last year’s standard. There wasn’t going to be much conceded here today. If there were, it would have to be fought for. I have to say, the kicking game may not be attractive rugby, but we are so much better playing the ball in the opposition half. It certainly means that I don’t have to overdose on the beta-blockers!
Tigers won their first penalty in the 8th minute and kicked to find touch 25M from the Irish line. They secured the ball despite immense pressure from Strudders. This pressure at the breakdown resulted in a penalty to Irish for going over the top. Kick to touch on half way in front of the East Stand.
From the lineout, guess what? Strudders wins it, out to Darren Edwards, then to Horak, another excellent display from Mike today, passed to Barry then back to Darren Edwards. Some inventive back play, looking confident despite the conditions underfoot. Sheasby conceded a turnover ball but Tigers were pinged for crossing. Barry to kick for points from half way straight in front. He didn’t look like he stepped back far enough to me, and the ball sailed underneath the crossbar.
Mulledwinemarie was going to have to wait a little while longer to get her banners out for Barry!
Strudders was there to catch the restart; Kronfeld conceded a penalty at the breakdown for not rolling away from the tackle area this time. Kronfeld had a massive game, along the lines of Jake Boer last time out at the Madstad. He was a constant threat to any Irish move and his strength and pace for a big bloke is pretty awesome. This time it was 8M inside the Tigers half and another miss. Conor was having words with Digby again, more instructions.
Now, I told you all that the man was a class act, but you wouldn’t believe me. Pieter Rossouw’s first attacking move followed an up and under from Barry to clear our lines. Pieter managed to catch and fumble but not knock on; he must have been great fun on the back seat in his younger days. He managed to stand up in the tackle and offload to Horak who cleared to somewhere around the 10M line. Hard to tell, as RFC hadn’t marked the pitch Sunday morning, if at all. It was becoming evident that the Tigers attacks were not getting past the Irish 22. O’ Sheasby won this lineout but Gussie was penalised for pulling back a Leicester player. Vesty kicked for touch, out on the 22. The lineout wasn’t straight, but Corry knocked it on in any case. Barry cleared to half way, we took a quick under-arm lineout to Gussie, who felt the might of Kronfeld re-arranging his breathing for a few seconds. As Tigers went on the march, the Eastiebeasties reckoned Mr. Rowden missed a blatant knock-on, but Irish were penalised for encroaching round the side. Steve Booth opted to try for goal about 26M out, straight in front. He missed.
At this point, the announcer asked if the crowd could respect the LI tradition of showing the kicker respect by being quiet during the kicks. There had been a fair amount of noise, even during Barry’s kicks. From both stands, it must be said. Wasn’t it great to see the South Stand occupied, even if it was only approx. 1000 over there.
I don’t mean to rattle on about our defence, but the backs must take great heart from this performance, the Doc, Nick Burrows, Pieter and especially Mike Horak were getting really stuck in. Paul Sackey was quiet by his standards but still put in some crucial hits. The green wall was just that.
Tigers best attacking move of the first half up to then saw Steve Booth get past Barry (was it a knock-on?) Burrows put the tackle in, but the ball came to Dorian West, Rossouw missed the tackle but Burrows was round to cover. The ball flew to Vesty, Irish supporters hearts were creeping upwards as it sailed out to Booth, but Rossouw had other ideas and put in his biggest hit of the day that killed the move and put the ball in touch on our 15M mark.
JFK won the lineout but Digby was robbed by Lloyd, who felt the force of Rossouw backed by Declan immediately behind. The ball came out to Corry who tried to feed Kafer, but the greasy ball flew into touch 14M out from the Irish line. Louis Deacon was penalised for pulling down the jumper. Barry cleared to 5M in Tigers half.
Rossouw was a real thorn in the side for Vesty, as anything he tried, Pieter was in his face, harrying, hurrying and forcing the mistakes. One of the moments of the game for me was seeing Nick Kennedy wrestle the ball from Garforth in a lineout just inside Tigers half in the 27th minute. The size differential is incredible, but that boy knows no fear.
Having mentioned the backs, the fat blokes deserve a mention too. The scrum was solid, the lineout just awesome. In spite of Conor’s assertion that this was way off the performance level that we know we can achieve, from where I was sitting, it looked pretty damn good. Naka and O’ Sheas, Dec and Strudders, Wors, Laa Laa, Kennedy and Conor’s MOTM Gussie were on fire. There is no other way to describe it. The conditions didn’t lend themselves to running rugby, but the middle of the park battle was swinging slowly. We were 27 minutes in and the score was still 3-0, but it seemed that the time had flown by.
In the 28th minute, Irish were awarded a penalty, which Digby tapped and ran with, was tackled after taking his first step, right under the refs nose, but it wasn’t blown. Strange.
A scrum in the 32nd minute saw Sheasby coming off the back, feeding to Sackey who was hit after he released the ball, which again wasn’t spotted by Mr. Rowden. The Westies were in no doubt, as the booing/jeering indicated.
The ensuing lineout was stolen by Strudders this time. “Our lineout just didn’t function today”, commented a strangely upbeat Dean Richards after the game. This was my first encounter with the man and I have to say I found him personable and polite (oh, and huge!).
Strudders fed Digby, to Sackey who kicked for Horak to chase, catch and kick again, Ollie Smith fumbled it and a penalty was awarded, not sure if it shouldn’t have been a scrum for the knock-on, but it meant that Barry broke the 1000 point mark in just 69 games for the club. The banners were out for the boy!
Tigers seemed to be fired up by this score and got their pack driving, Irish defended manfully, but a smart move involving Leon Lloyd and Louis Deacon ended with Ollie Smith touching down. Booth added the conversion to send the teams in at half time with Tigers leading 6-7.
The second half began with a brace of Irish penalties, 1 from 2 was the tally to get Irish back into the lead 9-7. Beefy replaced Worsley in the 49th minute and got stuck in straight away. He looked like a man on a mission to score a try each time he got the ball.
The midfield battle was hotting up and the Irish boys seemed to be edging it. Tigers were conceding a large number of penalties for basic errors in some cases, much like we have been for many of our games this season. I suppose sometimes it just goes your way and we were well overdue on this account.
Corry and Naka were locking horns in a mighty duel, I know our need is greater, but Naka really should have been out at Twickenham on Saturday, the current incumbent had a nightmare.
I’m not sure if it was just me, but a look at the clock said 60 minutes had elapsed, where had those last 20 minutes gone? Still 9-7.
There wasn’t really a pattern to the game, conditions didn’t really permit it. Any ball coming back to our defence resulted in a kick from Barry to try to find touch. He did miss a few, with Tuilagi gathering. Now this may have been a cunning plan, because he never made more than 10M )often less) before a man in a green shirt hit him. Take your pick from Gussie, Beefy, Naka and even Barry on a couple of occasions.
Barry added another score in the 67th minute following a break which he started in our half. An up & under for Horak to chase, saw Steve Booth let it bounce and be swallowed up by Horak. As Booth was isolated, he held on to the ball on the ground, 12-7. Horak’s chasing down was great to watch, probably not so great to be on the receiving end of the hits. The Leicester old boys were loving it.
This triggered a rash of replacements on the Leicester side with Garforth being replaced by Tournaire (half a team? Pah!). I lost track of the clean white shirts, I reckon 4 came on.
Irish were varying the lineouts, with a number of short ones, under arm League stuff. The sign of a confident team?
With 72 minutes gone, it was still 12-7 on the scoreboard, but Irish were to do a Tigers of last season and play to the very end. In the 73rd, Barry (the Little General, according to Conor) added another 3 as a result of a penalty given for offside. From the restart, Sackey knocked on, Digby harried at the base but Ellis got it away. JFK, Gussie, Dec and Sheas were starting to turn the physical screw and the tackle count must have been phenomenal. The Irish crowd were scenting that a famous victory could be on the cards, the drums and bodhrans were going, Sammy the Siren had put in a few appearances, the atmosphere was electric.
Rossouw sent through an up & under, which Vesty cleared but it went out on the full, which resulted in play coming back to about 28M out from the Tigers line. Naka took the quick one to Digby and some great recycling play ensued. The result of which was a near miss under the posts, the ball whipping towards the East Stand side, with Beefy driving head down for the corner only for Deacon to stop him. He presented the ball beautifully for Digby to get the game going cross-field to Barry who launched a pass to the other corner and in the ensuing mass of bodies, Mr. Rowden couldn’t be sure, so signalled a 5M scrum. Sheas came off the back of the scrum, but was brought down, the shouting from the West Stand seemed to indicate another offence, but it wasn’t blown. The clearance only came as far as Barry, who passed to Sacks upon whom Lloyd exacted some revenge for an earlier hit by reciprocating in kind. Despite the fact that Tuilagi was about 5M offside, no whistle blow came. Rossouw and Horak were starting to get a bit of a partnership going.
Mike Horak added a try following a clever pop-up from Sackey when he was tackled. Barry converted.
Then came the real talking point of the game. Deeper in injury time, a poor pass resulted in Rossouw intercepting and heading off an a run. Realising he wasn’t going to out-run the chasing Vesty and Ellis (or was it Lloyd and Chuter?), he stopped, spun round, the chasing Tigers went haring past, giving Pieter enough time to launch one of those England-esque cross-field to the corner kicks which stood up beautifully for Barry Everitt to score a try to complete what was a great day for him with 22 points on the board. The missed conversion was an aside as the Irish supporters were dancing in the stands. Cheering, hugging anybody and everybody in sight.
Finally, apparently a number of larynxes have been found on the pitch at Reading following the game, will the owners please collect them asap.
“We had 9 International players missing, but 4 weeks ago, most people didn’t give us much of a chance of winning one game, let alone two out of the three. There are some positive things to the last three weeks, but it was probably a game too far in some respects”, commented Dean Richards. “I think we are disappointed, but we will have our Internationals back next week. I think we gave away too many penalties, which was disturbing. We didn’t take control of the game in certain areas and our lineout didn’t function. Fair play to London Irish, they hit us where they felt they had to, they harried us and it certainly worked for them. We will have to have a look at the video as the handling, the kicking and the delivery of the ball was not what I wanted to see”.
“We are not pressing the panic button, we are constantly reminded that you don’t have to win the League to win the Championship this year, you get nothing for winning the League. In fact, is it a League? We could come second and get a home draw in the play-offs. In fairness, we are not playing for second. All credit to London Irish for playing right to the end where we ended up chasing the game and trying to push. When you are without 9 players it is a difficult place to play”.
“Delighted with the 4 points, but still a long way to go in terms of this season. It just goes to illustrate the point that any team can beat any other team on the day in this competition”, commented Conor O’ Shea after the game, “the fact that we were just missing 4 Internationals today, some on playing duty and some injured had an impact. What happened to Leicester today, was what we have seen happen to us so far this season, when you chase the game, you start to look poor. We will take anything we can at the moment, but it will be a while before we score a Bonus Point as conditions are so poor this time of year”.
“They have a lot of game breakers, but it is difficult to play when there is no purchase on the ground. When you are in a dogfight, you just fight to the bitter end. I don’t think I can understate how important this victory is for us right now”.
“We have to go to Kingsholm next week, brings back a lot of fond memories for me (!) 2 years to the day from when I received my injury. It was great to see the other team chasing the game for once, especially Leicester. It is a great psychological boost to the lads. We just need to build on it now”.
London Irish: Horak; Sackey, Burrows, Venter, Rossouw; Everitt, Edwards; Worsley (Hatley, 50min), Drotske, Hardwick (Halford, 47), Strudwick (capt), Kennedy, Gustard, Danaher, Sheasby.
Tries: Everitt, Horak. Con: Everitt. Pens: Everitt 4. DG: Everitt.
Leicester: Lloyd; Booth (Raynor, 71), Smith, Kafer, Tuilagi; Vesty, Ellis; Freshwater, West (capt; Chuter, 69), Garforth (Tournaire, 69), Deacon, Corry, Short, Kronfeld, Balding.
Try: Smith. Con: Booth.
Referee: A Rowden (Berkshire).
Tigers ran out in their new white away strip, so no inside-outies this time and with Rowden in Red in the middle on a grey, grey day the scene was set.
“We took Paul Gustard to one side before the game and told him to just do what he does every week on the field. We felt this was appropriate as he was really fired up for his first game against his old club. He was incredibly physical at the breakdown and secured a lot of ball for us”, added Conor, “it was a very disciplined, physical performance from Paul today”.
Indeed, as early as the kick off Gussie was making his presence felt with a big hit on Vesty to introduce him to what was going to be a hard game. Despite this, Vesty figured in just about everything Tigers did making his case for a permanent place in the team. Leicester conceded the first of many penalties just inside their half in the 2nd minute for playing the ball in front. Barry eased closer to that 1000 points mark as the cheers went up for 3-0.
O’ Sheasby caught the restart, made some yards and was brought down, only for Tigers to concede a penalty for hands on the ground, Mr. Rowden pinged a lot for this offence and I was surprised not to see a card at any point, especially given his last outing at the Madstad. Was it the fact that the TV cameras weren’t there?
Barry cleared to half way with the penalty. The lineout was secured by Nick Kennedy, who underlined his class today. As the game wore on, either Strudders or Nick were winning so much lineout ball that Tigers resorted to throwing it over the top. Where was Kieron Dawson when we needed him? He would have had a field day in the second half! This tactic is meat and drink to him.
From the lineout, the pass to Tuilagi resulted in him receiving a massive Paul Sackey softener tackle,ball spilled for another lineout, this time Irish to throw in. Young Nick secured it, out to Digby then to Barry to kick for territory (I can copy and paste that bit now, this was how it went for virtually every lineout, great to see). In this instance, Corry was pinged for offside and Barry cleared to half way again. Once again today, the touch judge’s impeccable positioning was evident as the ball rarely went any further than a metre away from where they stood when going out. I have to ponder, is it the years of experience?
We were only 6 minutes into the game and an animated Conor O’ Shea was to be seen dashing to the line, shouting instructions and making sure there was no doubt in conveying what he wanted to happen. The guys were fired up but this was matched almost blow for blow in a first half that struggled to get going in lots of ways. One thing was evident early on; the Irish defence was firing very close to last year’s standard. There wasn’t going to be much conceded here today. If there were, it would have to be fought for. I have to say, the kicking game may not be attractive rugby, but we are so much better playing the ball in the opposition half. It certainly means that I don’t have to overdose on the beta-blockers!
Tigers won their first penalty in the 8th minute and kicked to find touch 25M from the Irish line. They secured the ball despite immense pressure from Strudders. This pressure at the breakdown resulted in a penalty to Irish for going over the top. Kick to touch on half way in front of the East Stand.
From the lineout, guess what? Strudders wins it, out to Darren Edwards, then to Horak, another excellent display from Mike today, passed to Barry then back to Darren Edwards. Some inventive back play, looking confident despite the conditions underfoot. Sheasby conceded a turnover ball but Tigers were pinged for crossing. Barry to kick for points from half way straight in front. He didn’t look like he stepped back far enough to me, and the ball sailed underneath the crossbar.
Mulledwinemarie was going to have to wait a little while longer to get her banners out for Barry!
Strudders was there to catch the restart; Kronfeld conceded a penalty at the breakdown for not rolling away from the tackle area this time. Kronfeld had a massive game, along the lines of Jake Boer last time out at the Madstad. He was a constant threat to any Irish move and his strength and pace for a big bloke is pretty awesome. This time it was 8M inside the Tigers half and another miss. Conor was having words with Digby again, more instructions.
Now, I told you all that the man was a class act, but you wouldn’t believe me. Pieter Rossouw’s first attacking move followed an up and under from Barry to clear our lines. Pieter managed to catch and fumble but not knock on; he must have been great fun on the back seat in his younger days. He managed to stand up in the tackle and offload to Horak who cleared to somewhere around the 10M line. Hard to tell, as RFC hadn’t marked the pitch Sunday morning, if at all. It was becoming evident that the Tigers attacks were not getting past the Irish 22. O’ Sheasby won this lineout but Gussie was penalised for pulling back a Leicester player. Vesty kicked for touch, out on the 22. The lineout wasn’t straight, but Corry knocked it on in any case. Barry cleared to half way, we took a quick under-arm lineout to Gussie, who felt the might of Kronfeld re-arranging his breathing for a few seconds. As Tigers went on the march, the Eastiebeasties reckoned Mr. Rowden missed a blatant knock-on, but Irish were penalised for encroaching round the side. Steve Booth opted to try for goal about 26M out, straight in front. He missed.
At this point, the announcer asked if the crowd could respect the LI tradition of showing the kicker respect by being quiet during the kicks. There had been a fair amount of noise, even during Barry’s kicks. From both stands, it must be said. Wasn’t it great to see the South Stand occupied, even if it was only approx. 1000 over there.
I don’t mean to rattle on about our defence, but the backs must take great heart from this performance, the Doc, Nick Burrows, Pieter and especially Mike Horak were getting really stuck in. Paul Sackey was quiet by his standards but still put in some crucial hits. The green wall was just that.
Tigers best attacking move of the first half up to then saw Steve Booth get past Barry (was it a knock-on?) Burrows put the tackle in, but the ball came to Dorian West, Rossouw missed the tackle but Burrows was round to cover. The ball flew to Vesty, Irish supporters hearts were creeping upwards as it sailed out to Booth, but Rossouw had other ideas and put in his biggest hit of the day that killed the move and put the ball in touch on our 15M mark.
JFK won the lineout but Digby was robbed by Lloyd, who felt the force of Rossouw backed by Declan immediately behind. The ball came out to Corry who tried to feed Kafer, but the greasy ball flew into touch 14M out from the Irish line. Louis Deacon was penalised for pulling down the jumper. Barry cleared to 5M in Tigers half.
Rossouw was a real thorn in the side for Vesty, as anything he tried, Pieter was in his face, harrying, hurrying and forcing the mistakes. One of the moments of the game for me was seeing Nick Kennedy wrestle the ball from Garforth in a lineout just inside Tigers half in the 27th minute. The size differential is incredible, but that boy knows no fear.
Having mentioned the backs, the fat blokes deserve a mention too. The scrum was solid, the lineout just awesome. In spite of Conor’s assertion that this was way off the performance level that we know we can achieve, from where I was sitting, it looked pretty damn good. Naka and O’ Sheas, Dec and Strudders, Wors, Laa Laa, Kennedy and Conor’s MOTM Gussie were on fire. There is no other way to describe it. The conditions didn’t lend themselves to running rugby, but the middle of the park battle was swinging slowly. We were 27 minutes in and the score was still 3-0, but it seemed that the time had flown by.
In the 28th minute, Irish were awarded a penalty, which Digby tapped and ran with, was tackled after taking his first step, right under the refs nose, but it wasn’t blown. Strange.
A scrum in the 32nd minute saw Sheasby coming off the back, feeding to Sackey who was hit after he released the ball, which again wasn’t spotted by Mr. Rowden. The Westies were in no doubt, as the booing/jeering indicated.
The ensuing lineout was stolen by Strudders this time. “Our lineout just didn’t function today”, commented a strangely upbeat Dean Richards after the game. This was my first encounter with the man and I have to say I found him personable and polite (oh, and huge!).
Strudders fed Digby, to Sackey who kicked for Horak to chase, catch and kick again, Ollie Smith fumbled it and a penalty was awarded, not sure if it shouldn’t have been a scrum for the knock-on, but it meant that Barry broke the 1000 point mark in just 69 games for the club. The banners were out for the boy!
Tigers seemed to be fired up by this score and got their pack driving, Irish defended manfully, but a smart move involving Leon Lloyd and Louis Deacon ended with Ollie Smith touching down. Booth added the conversion to send the teams in at half time with Tigers leading 6-7.
The second half began with a brace of Irish penalties, 1 from 2 was the tally to get Irish back into the lead 9-7. Beefy replaced Worsley in the 49th minute and got stuck in straight away. He looked like a man on a mission to score a try each time he got the ball.
The midfield battle was hotting up and the Irish boys seemed to be edging it. Tigers were conceding a large number of penalties for basic errors in some cases, much like we have been for many of our games this season. I suppose sometimes it just goes your way and we were well overdue on this account.
Corry and Naka were locking horns in a mighty duel, I know our need is greater, but Naka really should have been out at Twickenham on Saturday, the current incumbent had a nightmare.
I’m not sure if it was just me, but a look at the clock said 60 minutes had elapsed, where had those last 20 minutes gone? Still 9-7.
There wasn’t really a pattern to the game, conditions didn’t really permit it. Any ball coming back to our defence resulted in a kick from Barry to try to find touch. He did miss a few, with Tuilagi gathering. Now this may have been a cunning plan, because he never made more than 10M )often less) before a man in a green shirt hit him. Take your pick from Gussie, Beefy, Naka and even Barry on a couple of occasions.
Barry added another score in the 67th minute following a break which he started in our half. An up & under for Horak to chase, saw Steve Booth let it bounce and be swallowed up by Horak. As Booth was isolated, he held on to the ball on the ground, 12-7. Horak’s chasing down was great to watch, probably not so great to be on the receiving end of the hits. The Leicester old boys were loving it.
This triggered a rash of replacements on the Leicester side with Garforth being replaced by Tournaire (half a team? Pah!). I lost track of the clean white shirts, I reckon 4 came on.
Irish were varying the lineouts, with a number of short ones, under arm League stuff. The sign of a confident team?
With 72 minutes gone, it was still 12-7 on the scoreboard, but Irish were to do a Tigers of last season and play to the very end. In the 73rd, Barry (the Little General, according to Conor) added another 3 as a result of a penalty given for offside. From the restart, Sackey knocked on, Digby harried at the base but Ellis got it away. JFK, Gussie, Dec and Sheas were starting to turn the physical screw and the tackle count must have been phenomenal. The Irish crowd were scenting that a famous victory could be on the cards, the drums and bodhrans were going, Sammy the Siren had put in a few appearances, the atmosphere was electric.
Rossouw sent through an up & under, which Vesty cleared but it went out on the full, which resulted in play coming back to about 28M out from the Tigers line. Naka took the quick one to Digby and some great recycling play ensued. The result of which was a near miss under the posts, the ball whipping towards the East Stand side, with Beefy driving head down for the corner only for Deacon to stop him. He presented the ball beautifully for Digby to get the game going cross-field to Barry who launched a pass to the other corner and in the ensuing mass of bodies, Mr. Rowden couldn’t be sure, so signalled a 5M scrum. Sheas came off the back of the scrum, but was brought down, the shouting from the West Stand seemed to indicate another offence, but it wasn’t blown. The clearance only came as far as Barry, who passed to Sacks upon whom Lloyd exacted some revenge for an earlier hit by reciprocating in kind. Despite the fact that Tuilagi was about 5M offside, no whistle blow came. Rossouw and Horak were starting to get a bit of a partnership going.
Mike Horak added a try following a clever pop-up from Sackey when he was tackled. Barry converted.
Then came the real talking point of the game. Deeper in injury time, a poor pass resulted in Rossouw intercepting and heading off an a run. Realising he wasn’t going to out-run the chasing Vesty and Ellis (or was it Lloyd and Chuter?), he stopped, spun round, the chasing Tigers went haring past, giving Pieter enough time to launch one of those England-esque cross-field to the corner kicks which stood up beautifully for Barry Everitt to score a try to complete what was a great day for him with 22 points on the board. The missed conversion was an aside as the Irish supporters were dancing in the stands. Cheering, hugging anybody and everybody in sight.
Finally, apparently a number of larynxes have been found on the pitch at Reading following the game, will the owners please collect them asap.
“We had 9 International players missing, but 4 weeks ago, most people didn’t give us much of a chance of winning one game, let alone two out of the three. There are some positive things to the last three weeks, but it was probably a game too far in some respects”, commented Dean Richards. “I think we are disappointed, but we will have our Internationals back next week. I think we gave away too many penalties, which was disturbing. We didn’t take control of the game in certain areas and our lineout didn’t function. Fair play to London Irish, they hit us where they felt they had to, they harried us and it certainly worked for them. We will have to have a look at the video as the handling, the kicking and the delivery of the ball was not what I wanted to see”.
“We are not pressing the panic button, we are constantly reminded that you don’t have to win the League to win the Championship this year, you get nothing for winning the League. In fact, is it a League? We could come second and get a home draw in the play-offs. In fairness, we are not playing for second. All credit to London Irish for playing right to the end where we ended up chasing the game and trying to push. When you are without 9 players it is a difficult place to play”.
“Delighted with the 4 points, but still a long way to go in terms of this season. It just goes to illustrate the point that any team can beat any other team on the day in this competition”, commented Conor O’ Shea after the game, “the fact that we were just missing 4 Internationals today, some on playing duty and some injured had an impact. What happened to Leicester today, was what we have seen happen to us so far this season, when you chase the game, you start to look poor. We will take anything we can at the moment, but it will be a while before we score a Bonus Point as conditions are so poor this time of year”.
“They have a lot of game breakers, but it is difficult to play when there is no purchase on the ground. When you are in a dogfight, you just fight to the bitter end. I don’t think I can understate how important this victory is for us right now”.
“We have to go to Kingsholm next week, brings back a lot of fond memories for me (!) 2 years to the day from when I received my injury. It was great to see the other team chasing the game for once, especially Leicester. It is a great psychological boost to the lads. We just need to build on it now”.
London Irish: Horak; Sackey, Burrows, Venter, Rossouw; Everitt, Edwards; Worsley (Hatley, 50min), Drotske, Hardwick (Halford, 47), Strudwick (capt), Kennedy, Gustard, Danaher, Sheasby.
Tries: Everitt, Horak. Con: Everitt. Pens: Everitt 4. DG: Everitt.
Leicester: Lloyd; Booth (Raynor, 71), Smith, Kafer, Tuilagi; Vesty, Ellis; Freshwater, West (capt; Chuter, 69), Garforth (Tournaire, 69), Deacon, Corry, Short, Kronfeld, Balding.
Try: Smith. Con: Booth.
Referee: A Rowden (Berkshire).
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