London Irish
I Hate Twickenham Stadium
By SamB_LI
January 1 2013
I, like many other Irish fans, am not the biggest fan of Twickenham stadium. The beer is expensive and weak; the pitch is too far away and you spend 50% of the game missing what is going on due to ‘plonkers’ getting up to get a beer or go to the loo every 2 minutes.
This season, Irish have struggled to string together any sort of cohesive performance. We showed signs of resurgence last week against Tigers, with our pack working their socks off to provide the backs with decent ball. Despite this, there are holes in both our game plan, selection policy and, most importantly, our defensive line. Combine all of this, and I did not step onto the train at Windsor and Eton Riverside with much hope. Add in the fact that it was steadily raining, a weather condition Irish historically struggle with, and I was extremely jealous of my fiancée sitting in our warm living room in Winkfield.
After the usual pyrotechnics and irritating music, the game was ready to start. Quins were able to call upon an extremely strong and threatening starting line-up, with Irish sticking with the team that battled hard against Leicester. I will apologise in advance, this is more of a summary of each half rather than a play by play report.
To be totally honest, the first half must have been pretty tough viewing for the neutral. Perhaps this helped to explain why so many of them in the row in front of me were spending most of the 40 minutes walking to and from the bar. Irish struggled to gain much possession, and when we did, conditions forced us to kick for touch. I was particularly impressed by some of Humphries’ line kicking; he was peppering the touch lines inside the Quins half – about the only time we were making it near the Quins 22. Unfortunately, this was not replicated by our grubber kicks. For some reason we seemed to persist with this tactic, despite not one of them succeeding. In actual fact, we seemed most at risk of conceding a try when every single one of these grubbers rebounded off the feet of the defenders. Evans and Humphries proceeded to exchange penalties as the defences ruled the game. The Irish line looked pretty solid throughout the half, and were only stretched on one occasion when Quins ran a training park backs move. Fortunately, our scramble defence was impressive and resulted in a knock on from Evans. The scrum was a big worry for us; Max was clearly finding Johnston tough to deal with, whereas Halani was making mincemeat of Marler. Unfortunately, Max’s problems were more evident to the referee, resulting in the penalties tending to go Quins’ way. One big positive was the tackling and carrying of Hala’ufia, he was providing great stability and scooping up poor quality ball from the back of the scrum. That’s about it really, and the score stood at 6-6 at half time, with Humph and Evans both missing kickable penalties. We were under big pressure, but we were still right in it.
The exchange of penalties continued in the early stages of the second half, and this looked set to continue until the unfortunate try by Danny Care. Irish defended a Quins 5 metre line out superbly, driving them back 5-10 metres. Care took the ball out of the retreating maul and proceeded on a loopy run. A couple of phases later he picked up and scrambled over the line. It looked like double movement live, but the referee only asked to check the grounding. On reflection, the try seemed absolutely fine and a good piece of opportunistic play. Humph brought us back to 4 down, only for us to instantly concede another penalty. At this point, we introduced Gibson and Phibbs. The latter had an immediate impact, providing the backs with quick ball, a secure pass and some defensive stability. This was a noticeable step up for Irish, and seemed to bring us to life. We were finally able to run through phases, penetrating the Quins defence. They looked rattled and we managed to reduce the deficit to 4. Things looked good. However, having supported Irish for nearly 17 years, I was naturally pessimistic…with good reason. Having won a penalty and a line out inside Quins’ half, we contrived to lose the ball and work our way back to our 5 metre line under heavy pressure. Despite Quins’ best efforts, our defence was holding on. Then came the disaster. Care took the ball from the back of the ruck and stepped out to pass. Phibbs, showing speed of reaction and awareness grabbed Care’s arm resulting in Care dropping the ball and Gibson hacking it clear and to safety (or more with our backs racing after it). This was a magnificent piece of legal defending, saving Irish’ skin. Mr Garner, however, had other ideas. For some reason he decided that he knew exactly what to do and yellow carded Phibbs. This resulted in a 5 metre scrum from which we were penalised once and then had a penalty try awarded. The referee did not cost us the game, but he almost certainly cost us a point. I should add that he and his officials had a reasonable game besides this one travesty. Final score 26-15.
In summary, this was a gritty performance from Irish. The forwards fronted up well, securing our ball without ever threatening a turnover. Garner’s leniency on holding on, rolling away and supporting body weight meant that both teams were pretty much guaranteed to retain possession until making a mistake. The scrum was a big problem; Max was turned every which way but loose by Johnston and Jerry seemed to struggle just as much when he came on. Halani had Marler in desperate trouble, but was perhaps unlucky not to receive more reward for his efforts. Indeed, after absolutely decimating Marler in one scrum, he was penalised for collapsing when Marler was running backwards. Phibbs was a massive improvement at 9, and must be in contention for a starting berth. Darren seems desperate to do well, but it is just not happening for him at the moment. The biggest plus point for us was our defence. On the occasions when Quins fed the ball through the backs, they looked dangerous, but we held them well. Had Quins been more ambitious with the ball, they could have inflicted a lot more damage on us; it baffled me why they stuck to what seemed to be a limited game plan. That said, it could be that our defensive successes were forcing them to play tightly, and even negatively on occasion.
Gloucester away will be tough, but the signs are there for us. If we continue to improve as we have, things can only get better.
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A game of rugby between the team at the top of the league and another which is struggling big time, facing the real prospect of relegation is/was never ever going to be entertaining.
Anyone who went to HQ to be entertained has sadly missed most of the point about rugby. You must try to win, anyway you can. I thought Irish put up a decent display - much better than we have in many games and I am hopeful (but not 100% confident) that we are improving.
It was Quins duty to entertain - it was their marketing department that oversold the game. It was not Irish's responsibility to provide a festival of running rugby. Actually by enticing 50-60k non-rugby enthusiasts to the game Quins have probably turned off that number from ever attending another game. Bring back an exhibition match as "Big Game 6" where neither team has anything to lose.
"To be totally honest, the first half must have been pretty tough viewing for the neutral. Perhaps this helped to explain why so many of them in the row in front of me were spending most of the 40 minutes walking to and from the bar". Well, a rugby supporter, neutral or not, would have appreciated the scrum contest, the varying tactics, the skills (and been concerned about the lack thereof) on display, the playing for territory, the tough hits and the lines that caused tackles to be missed, etc, which all make up our game.
Next year - if Quins get Big Game 6 - don't go if you want "entertainment". However, if you want to see two teams putting their bodies and livelihoods on the line, you might consider it.
We didn't deserve to win but it would have been good to get a LBP. Quite frankly, for a team at the top of the league,playing at home, Quins weren't that much better than us. Just shows how fine the line is between the top and the bottom. But then Quins weren't that bad when they were relegated......
One would think that a nation that got rich enough to exploit the Industrial Revolution, through piracy, opium trading and slavery, would be more circumspect.
Drowning out the Haka with a slave song? Where is the culture or intellect in that? Imagine a Chinese or Celtic audience drowning out "God Save Our Queens"? They'd bring in the ICBM's!
The Shaghai Doctor
As an Englishman I am sorry that you had a bad experience at Twickenham when the ABs were there. I have not yet been to New Zealand but I can tell you that as an Englishman in Sydney for the RWC2003 final there were a few "less than generous" comments made before the game, and the Boks aren't overly welcoming at Ellis Park. Sadly now-a-days it seems to go with the territory.
There is more atmosphere in my back garden - and I'm not actually sure what most of them expect to see, although quite a few seemed more interested in the popular beat combos that were playing rather than the rugby.
Solid performance from Irish and another step in the right direction. But from someone who actually likes going to Twickenham I thought it was a waste of time as an experience ....
Back in the day we used to put a 2nd XV out against the Natal Sharks to get humped in an exhibition game. It didn't sell out the Stoop.
People know what they're getting.
Seats had much more room and not cramped. Brill.. LOved it
