Traaaactorrrr

The party was in full swing in the east stand when Malachi appeared in front of the West stand to give us a rendition of Danny Boy and Wild Rover – it certainly warmed the crowd up but I was so pleased to see him disappear before ‘The fields of Athenry’ – which was sung with great passion.

The team were obviously inspired, as within a couple of minutes of the start Irish had turned over possession and fed the ball quickly to O’Sackey on the right wing, he shrugged of his opposite number’s attempted tackle, evaded two others (not Henry Paul again?) and 50 yards later he was touching down under the posts. A lot will be written about this try I will simply say -Magnificent. Tofty converted – ‘7-0 to the Irish’.

A scrappy 15 minutes followed with neither team able to develop any pattern of play or retain possession. After 16 minutes Tofty clearly took a blow to the head and looked extremely unsteady on his feet – a few anxious moments later we were relieved to see him get up, but that was the last we saw of him on the pitch (Barry Everitt as replacement).

A minute later we got the first indication of what, I believe was to be the defining ‘battle within the battle’. A Gloucester put in at a scrum, the Glaws scrum on the retreat and then turned through more than 90 degrees – somehow Awesome was penalised from this scrum and after a bit of backchat the penalty was moved forward 10 yards. Nothing came from it as the Cherry and Whites were penalised from the ensuing lineout.

Half-way through the first half Irish mounted another attack; O’Sackey joined the line from the blind side, chipped into space in the Glaws 22 and appeared to be balked by Garvey as he tried to chase the chip. Mr White saw nothing wrong and awarded a 22 kick, one of a number of decisions that upset the home crowd during the afternoon.

Irish had certainly had the better of possession and territory up to this point and were attempting another move when the ball was spilled in midfield, the Glaws backrow were quick to the breakdown and secured the ball at the ruck. Irish were defending the fringes of the ruck when Junior Paraamore picked the ball up at the base and took ‘route one’ through the undefended middle of the ruck leaving a clear path to the goal line. Try converted by Henry Paul 7-7.

Irish responded well with a period of concerted pressure in which Bish almost scored but was pulled down in the 22 and Gloucester cleared their lines. Just before the half-time break Awesome was pinged by the referee at the breakdown (again) and Paul slotted over the kick – 7-10 to Gloucester. There was just time for Mr White to penalise Freddie Gustard for not staying on his feet at a ruck – no mitigation given for the two Gloucester players jumping on his back. Paul missed the penalty 7-10 to Glaws at half-time.

Irish had had the better of the first half in terms of both territory and possession but had somehow managed to allow Gloucester a narrow half-time lead.

The Cherry and Whites came out fired up and certainly started the better with Jake Boer making huge in-roads into the Irish 22 straight from the kick-off. However it was Gloucester’s turn to ‘cough-up’ the ball and Orac relieved the pressure with one of a number of huge punts up the touchline. Orac’s kicking out of hand was superb all afternoon. Irish won a line-out on the half-way line and we were treated to an exhibition of ‘shove the ball up the jumper’ rugby as the Irish rolling maul made – fully 30 yards up the pitch. Even the Glaws diehards must have been impressed (well maybe not), but for the followers of a club renowned for its forward power worse was to follow. Irish were hammering away at the Glaws line when some impressive defence forced another Irish knock on. The Glaws scrum had really been ‘creaking’ at this stage and when Andy Deacon went off the Irish forwards really ‘made hay’ actually shunting the Cherry and White pack off their own ball on 3 occasions. Certainly something for the Irish front row to tell their grandchildren. A penalty to Irish for killing the ball duly converted by Barry – 10-10.

A few minutes later Barry hoisted a huge Garryowen – spilled by Garvey who had one eye on the on-rushing Bish – the ball bounced 10 yards forward and was picked up by a Gloucester forward – offside – 3 more points to Barry 13-10 and the momentum was all with Irish.

The home crowd got its first view of Phil Murphy as he came on for Freddie Gustard after 15 minutes of the second-half and like last week he looks a real handful when he gets his hands on the ball, low, shoulder leading running – very difficult to stop.

All the play was now in the Gloucester half and awesome was unlucky to see a charged down clearance from the impressive Teague bounce harmlessly over the dead-ball line. Irish continued to press and a series of cycles of play saw them recycling again right under the Gloucester posts – Darren Edwards picked up and turned to pass to the fly-half only to find three very tired Gloucester forwards doing the old southern hemisphere/Zinzan Brooke waltz (you know the one – hands innocently held up in the air saying ‘I’m not interfering with play-honest’) between him and his out-half. Instead the scrum half had no option but to feed one of the forwards who appeared to run into his own man, penalty and Gloucester relief.

The retiring forwards was, I believe, a problem throughout the second half and it was not dealt with by the referee at all, I hope that the ref looks at the video and takes note of this as I thought Rugby had managed to rid itself of this ‘professional’ behaviour. Further pressure by Irish resulted in a close-range drop-goal by Barry (16-10).

Irish went close a few more times and even missed two drop-goal attempts to finish off the game. Therefore, despite the vast-majority of the pressure and possession Gloucester were, inconceivably, still within a converted try of victory and ran everything at Irish – Irish defence held firm with no-little help from a very noisy home crowd as cries of Irish – Irish rang around the Madstad. Nine minutes into injury time (with cynics suggesting Mr (Cherry and) White (sorry!!) was going to play until Gloucester scored) saw one of those slow motion –heart-stopping moments. The Gloucester fly-half had the ball on the half way line and the Irish defence all came up as a line (no full back- ? Orac at the bottom of the ruck) – a neat chip bounced on the 22 and could easily have bounced up into the on-rushing Teague’s hands who would have scored unopposed under the posts. Fortunately the bounce went Irish’s way and after a scramble Darren Edwards cleared to touch. The final whistle was greeted with a roar of relief. Final score 16-10.

The pack were superb today – driving mauls to the fore and very disruptive in the scrummage. No side dominated at the lineouts but the difference here between the two sides was that Irish were able to use the lineouts as a platform for the driving mauls whereas Gloucester could build no momentum after securing the ball. Awesome had a good game and really seems fired up at the moment but I thought the Gloucester backrow were a little more streetwise. Barry had an excellent game and, just as against, Bristol showed what a player he is to have when the team are ahead. His ‘magic right foot’ drills the ball into the corners turning, in this case a very tired pack, and forces the opposition to attack from very deep. In the second-half he controlled the game. The backs tackled well and O’Sackey’s try was brilliant but we really need to get the ball quickly to our very dangerous back three. The handling wasn’t all it should be and as a result what little space there was, was soon closed down by a very ‘advanced’ Gloucester back line. The handling skills and ball retention are things that I think, will be worked on in training.

A number of people have said that we should be extremely worried about narrowly beating a weakened team especially as we haven’t lost anyone to the RWC (remember that we have injuries of our own) – I think that they ignore a number of important points:
1. The score line might not suggest it – but Irish won well and especially in the second half dominated both possession and territory. A combination of excellent defence, poor ball retention and Mr White’s whistle (or lack of it) prevented the margin being greater.
2. Four points is 4 points come the end of the season – doesn’t matter who was on the park.
3. Who says that Irish won’t be stronger after the RWC? – other teams will have players coming back but Irish will almost certainly strengthen their squad and will have done so without having to pay any of the ‘extra’ wages through the RWC. Furthermore we won’t have to worry about our players (or any ones we may want to sign – because we wouldn’t) picking up long-term injuries at the RWC.

Finally I thought that the support was excellent – soulless football stadium indeed. Onwards and upwards – bring on those Hairyqueens!!

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