The magic is in the boots.

 

A rugby ball, when drop kicked, is an imperfect projectile.  Because of its shape, if it is not spinning about its long axis, all kind of forces act on it as it progresses through the air.  On this occasion the goal needed to be scored in order that London Irish would win a game which had looked comfortable just minutes before, and which the 20 or so green clad diehards behind the goal considered themselves very unfortunate not to be winning.

 

The ball left Barry’s boot and looped up into the air, it looked to all the world that it would miss to the right and drop short.  Suddenly, on its downward flight, it faded left, and got just a few more legs, creeping between the uprights, and over the cross bar.  The rest, as they say, is history.

 

Doubtless, students of aerodynamics can explain the eccentric movement of the ball, but all those present will remain eternally convinced that on this pagan feast of the supernatural, it was all caused by the magic of Barry’s boot.

 

So that is how it ended, but how did this drama unfold?

 

Sale sharks, welcomed LI to their new home, Edgely Park, which they share with Stockport county FC. Around 5,600 supporters turned up, and all but about forty of them were hoping for, and expecting Sales first win at their new home.

 

London Irish of course, had other ideas.  Unlike the previous couple of LI games there was no score for quite a few minutes at the start of the game, both sides being adventurous, but both defences looking too good for the opponents attacks.  Irish in fact opened the scoring on 12 minutes with a penalty given against Sanderson for handling in a ruck.  As often happens however, pretty much from the restart, Irish found themselves defending, Mike Horak took too long with his clearance kick, and The impressive Graham Bond, charged it down, and followed up to score the try. Charge downs seem to be becoming a bit of a feature of Irish games lately, and on this occasion it went against us.  Braam Van Straten converted, and after 14 minutes Sale led 7 –3.

 

From then onwards, Irish had the lions share of possession and territory, and were really looking in control, although to be honest, most of the Irish backs moves were going sideways again, and Sales were eating it all up with a very well executed drift defence.  At this stage, the Sale pack were definitely getting the better of the Scrums, and always looked dangerous with their catch and drive at the lines out.

 

Irish hit back almost immediately with a Barry penalty, after a deliberate knock on, and then 10 minutes later the pressure told once again, with Sales giving away a penalty for deliberate knock on, then another 4 minutes later which Barry converted from halfway to make the score Sale 7 – Irish 12 on 29 minutes.

 

This acted as a bit of a wake up call for Sale, and they responded with a good attack down the right wing.  Bish stepped in as he always does, and caught the Sale wing around the neck.  High tackle, penalty, and to be honest Bish was lucky not to get a yellow card.  Anyway, Van Straten scored from long range.  32 Minutes 10 – 12.

 

The next act was the best Irish move of the game.  Irish won a scrum on their own 10M line, the ball went through a couple of pairs of hands, and Michael hit the line on a great angle which took him between two defenders, he made about 40 metres, and had only to pass to Bish for the score.  As he often does in these situations he ignored the overlap and got tackled short of the line.  Bish hit the tackle area hard, and Awesome arrived quickly and secured a quick second phase.  The ball was transferred quickly left along the line to the left wing, where La La was getting his breath back from all the running.  He sprinted in a kind of Forest Gump Slomo, for the two metres to get over the line for the first try scored by a LI forward this season.  Barry kicked the extras from the touch line. 36 mins, 10 – 19 to Irish.

Sale attacked for the remainder of the half and forced an Irish offside right in front of the posts, which BVS converted, and the half finished 13 – 19.

 

The lead has been earned by very structured attacking and fantastic defence.  The stars of the first half were undoubtedly the back row, Declan to the fore, but Awesome and O’Sheas not far behind.  They were just everywhere.

 

Irish took a long time to come out in the 2^nd half.  One could imagine that Gary and Paul were encouraging concentration and focus, and imploring them to keep what they had earned.  O’Sheas did not come out for the second half, he was replaced by Murph, and we later heard that he had received a big knock in the eye, and had been taken to hospital.

 

Irish started the 2^nd half as they had played the first, loads of possession and pressure, and quickly forced a Sale penalty for a hand in a ruck.  Barry continued at 100%, 45 mins 13 – 22.  For a while now, both sides cancelled each other out.  Sale made 3 substitutions, and introduced Charlie Hodgson.  He made an immediate impact, and Sale looked a much better side.  It was now their turn to put Irish under pressure, swinging the ball along flowing backs moves.  Irish defence looked very solid, with Dec, Big Bob, and Hoads outstanding.  A particular feature now, was that whenever Irish got the Ball, Murph charged hard and straight, and he showed us all that the Murphy sidestep is indeed a sidestep.  On one occasion he charged up the left wing and broke at least three tackles making about 30 yards.  Had his pass to the winger gone to hand it would have been an easy run in.  Unfortunately it was not to be.

 

Sales were finally rewarded for their industry on 48 mins, when Irish went offside in the midfield and Van Straten continued his perfect game, 16 – 22.

 

Barry replied for Irish 7 minutes later to reinstate the “2 scores” gap at   16 – 25.

 

Then Sale, as we knew they would, came on a charge.  They got lots of good possession and forced mistakes in the Irish defence, first BVS got 3 points back with a penalty, then, very briefly, the Irish wheels fell off.

 

Mr Maybank, made a rare mistake.  He actually obstructed Barry coming up to tackle Hodgson, and Charlie didn't’t need to be asked twice, he shot though the gap and led an attack to the right.  This got to within 5 metres before the Irish defence sent it back a few yards.  However Sale would not relinquish the field position, and from the next attack, the ball cannoned about like an Italian snooker shot.  It fell to Charlie, who looked up and executed a perfect long miss pass to Steve Hanley.  With no one to beat, he scored in the corner.  BVS scored the conversion from the sideline, and suddenly Irish found themselves a point behind at 26 – 25 with just 4 minutes left on the clock.

 

From here on in, it was a siege.  Irish tried desperately to get in range for a drop goal, and the smart Sale defence kept on whacking the ball back to the Irish 22.  A scrum on the 10m line gave Barry an opportunity in the 80^th minute, but he miss hit it badly and missed far right.  It all looked just beyond the Boys, when Murph took the ball up really strong.  Kieron did what he does all game every game.  He won the ball and got it back to Kevin Barrett, who had by now replaced Darren.  Kev gave the long pass to Barry, and he swung the magic boot.  81 mins, Sale 26 – Irish 28.

 

But there was still time for one more act.  Sale won their own restart, and the ball went to Hodgson for a DG attempt.  He swung the boot, but his magic was not there.  Kieron Dawson flew through the air and charged it down on the Irish 10m line, he chased and hacked it on. Gathering the ball about 5m from the Sale line, he was tackled short, but stretched to the line. Failing to ground the ball spilled forward.  Graham Bond picked it up and tried to counter attack, but Mr Maybank called it back for a TV replay to see the grounding.  No time left and Irish win 26 – 28 to go second in the ZP

 

So Overall impressions were:-

 

Sale now have a very nice new ground, the staff are friendly and helpful, and all in all it feels like a real Rugby ground.  When their supporters get going they are really noisy, and get behind their team well. They were also very welcoming and friendly towards the visitors

 

For all of the big names Sales really did not look very dangerous, and IMHO were flattered by thscore linene, and very lucky to get a bonus point, although I have to say that Charlie, showed us all what we have been missing.  Sale are a side that will improve immeasurably now that Hodgson is back, and when Robinson, and more importantly, Redpath, return.

 

For Irish, this was a mixed performance.  On the one hand, we were very good in the first half, although we gave away a sloppy try, on the other hand, we contrived to throw it all away with lack of concentration in the second.

 

There were some great individual performances from Sheas in the 1^st half, then from his replacement, Murph in the 2^nd.  This man is a true line breaker, and I am convinced he is just what we need to keep the attack going forward straight.  However, I am still not convinced by his defence.  Awesome continued with his consistently excellent performances, and Rob Hoadley showed that he is now pretty much the finished article, both in attack and defence.  Barry scored 100% from his place kicks, and of course won the game with the DG.  But he did run sideways, and the backs look much better when Tofty is at 10.  Also, Barry was less than convincing with his line kicking, giving Sale lots of opportunities to counter attack.  But Hey… He scored 23 points and effectively won the game for us, so must not criticise.

 

But without doubt, the Outstanding Irish Player was Declan Danaher.  He was on fire, he was involved in every attack, and I reckon he had a higher tackle count even than Awesome.    In fact today Declan was awesome.

 

A final thought is that now, when Irish change personnel, we make strong positions even stronger.  There is real competition for places in the team, and with 4 of our next 6 ZP matches at home, we have a real chance of staying close to the top of the ZP.

 

And a question to leave you with.

 

Why on earth do stage magicians use a magic wand, when real magicians use their right boot?