Ooof

As you stepped in to the Stoop, you could feel an atmosphere of anticipation. The nerves were almost tangible.

Both sets of supporters knew that their team could win; we both knew that we could just as easily give it away. It was unfortunate, that we left the Stoop having been proved correct in that.

Saying that, London Irish were by far the fastest out of the blocks. It took just 4 minutes for O’Sackey to show the premiership Moyne’s defensive frailties as for the first of many times, he left him looking like an innocent bystander in a LA drive by shoot out.

This move led to a drop goal attempt. Dorothy lined it up & struck it with just enough power & accuracy to float over the bar. HOORAY! 0-3 to the Irish.

But wait! Lander, who was less than 15m away & almost in line, decided not to give it? Supporters of both teams were left wondering why. Those who could see the line were left thinking it dropped short, those along the try line thought it must have drifted wide as they could see it had the length.

Anyway, the Ref is the Ref, & with his yellow cloak of ineptitude blurring his vision, a Quins drop out was given.

Less than a minute later Horak blasted threw a hole the Quin’s defence. With just an out of position Duffy to beat…

… Lander decided to pull him back for an Irish penalty. Apparently a try would not have been enough of advantage? Confused? Lander is!

The resulting penalty in front of the posts was as easy as a drop kick & Dorothy easily slotted it over. 0-6 to LI ( ooops, 0-3 )

A Quins penalty in there own half left to the 1st head to head between O’Sacks & Moyne. Sacks made a bit of a pigs ear of the pick up & it was left to Horak to do the 1st of many good clearance kicks.

Shortly afterwards, Bish read Ben Willis’ pick from a ruck with far too much precision for Landers taste & gave Quins a penalty.

Every Time Ref! Every time!

No, not the foul, your poor decision making!

An easy kick for Paul Burke made the score 3-6 ( Ok ok, 3-3 )

The game was just 20 minutes old when Simon Maill fell over in a line out & was stretchered off. Aparantly an innocuous bit of contact with one of his own props, resulting in a serious knee injury & the end of his season. Good luck with the recovery Simon.

The half continued with Bish & Sacks giving lessons in wing play. Both managing to snatch the ball out of their opposite numbers hands. Unfortunately a well organised drift defence meant that there was always more cover than space. And Bish missing an overlap didn’t help!

Half time 3-3

The second half started in much the same way as the first. With the Irish hitting hard & fast. The moves were varied, fluid & good in plan. The execution was left wanting & we were turned over far too many times, often caught flat by sideways running instead of looking for gaps.

I do like the idea of swinging the ball out to the back three but I would like to see Dot & the centres take the ball forwards a bit more than they do before releasing.

While the backs were spilling the ball or knocking on, the forwards were quite literally throwing it away. I have never seen so many LI line outs be lost. It was almost predictable that Quins would get possession. If you thought the second half line outs against Tigs were bad, be glad that you never saw these. Woeful is the only word.

Despite the bright start, A knock on by O’Sheas led to a Quins penalty ( Confused? Lander is! ). Easy! 6-3 Quins.

A penalty to LI was pulled left by Barry ( OK, I’ll call you by your real name ) from out wide. Shortly afterward, Barry made what looked to be a rash high tackle on Burke. I think it was only the facts that Burke ducked slightly ( probably to avoid the tackle ) & to it was Barry’s first offence that kept him on the pitch. The spirit of Brendan lives on!

Burke composed himself & made it 9-3 from the penalty.

A couple of minutes later & Barry was blatantly hit late by Jim Evans after clearing his lines. Payback for the high tackle? Of course this was missed by anyone with the Yellow Cloak of Ineptitude.

Half way through the second half & it was time to release BIG Phil Murphy. On for Gussie.

Not even he could stop Josh Taumalolo from scoring a drop goal. You saw that one easily enough Lander!

More bad rugby & silly mistakes from both sides followed. Thrower came on for Sackey, Wheatley for Hatley & Roche for Casey.

A Quins penalty duly followed for hands in the ruck. 15-3.

This must have been the wake up call that the team needed as the rest of the match wasn’t that bad. Yes there were mistakes, but the improvement were there for all to see.

This led to Ryan collecting the ball in the inside channel of a torn apart defence. Space to the front of him ( barring the lone figure of Gavin Duffy ) space to right of him, space to left. But no, there’s a player in support to the left. “Shall I take on Duffy or use the support?” A fantastic pass straight into the hands of the supporting Ben Willis. Sorry, did I forget to mention he was defensive support? Willis dutifully cleared his lines leaving everyone wondering what just happened there.

I think that pretty much summed up the day as far as our performance was concerned. We lost through our own incompetence. Not just Ryan’s pass. That was just the just the icing on the very sour cake.

Our possession & territorial advantage finally paid off with a try for Ed thrower after the previous couple of phases opened up the Quins defence again.

Dorothy converted to make it 15-10.

Unfortunately, this late rally could not stop us from turning the ball over to Quins at every given opportunity. We had a few more chances but let them off the hook far too easily.

The whistle finally came & an air of disbelief clouded over us. How could a team with at least 60% of both possession & territory, a team that never looked as if they were going to be beaten, a team whose line was rarely breached have lost?

We quite literally gave it away.

Oh well! Where’s the party. They may break our line out, they may break our ruck. Ace may have broken Nick Greenstock, JoeV even managed to break a bottle of beer, didn’t stop me drinking it as they’ll never break the Craic!

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