Traaaaactor
Powergen Cup Revives Irish Defence
Traaaaactor
By Griff
November 16 2003
Castle Grim, is a place where few get to see their team win. The shed-effect is well documented, the standing faithful of Kingsholm give their team an invincibility at home which is rarely over-come.
Traaaaactor
November 16 2003
Castle Grim, is a place where few get to see their team win. The shed-effect is well documented, the standing faithful of Kingsholm give their team an invincibility at home which is rarely over-come.
For those Irish who stayed at home to watch the match on the Beeb it is an opportunity missed. It is over a decade since we last won at Gloucester, how long before we will see it again?
Under a cloudless sky we amassed at a sunny Kingsholm, as a pre-match warm-up there was a high-kick “bomb” competition. There were two Gloucester lads versus three London Irish, caused by a slight mix-up when asking for a last LI supporter. With a stinker of a kick to him Bisach failed to repeat his pre-match success of last week at Saracens but MrGoz proved very useful under a number of high balls to come away victorious. If you want more details, or indeed if you don’t, he’ll bore you endlessly with the details later…
With a crate of beer in the bag the Irish were ready for the main event.
Gloucester kicked-off and Irish controlled the ball well and worked it out to the right. Both teams were looking bright and thankfully there was little evidence of the hands-of-spam that have dogged our attacking play since the start of the season. Gloucester eventually failed to release in a tackle in the centre of the field. Barry converted the penalty. Two minutes gone. Glaws 0 – 3 London Irish.
Irish returned the re-start with a kick to touch and from the line-out Gloucester pressed, catching Irish off-side. The kick was taken towards the corner and the cherry and whites pressed from the line-out but the Exiles defence was holding well, eventually forcing Gloucester to illegally handle the ball in a ruck allowing Irish to clear to touch. From the line-out the men-in-green spread it but were caught on the centre-spot, the home team trying, again, to use their hands to turn the ball over giving the Irish a penalty in the centre of the field. Barry attempted the goal but, although he had the right line, dropped it inches short, allowing Jake Boer to catch and run at the visitors.
The play was fast and furious with both teams giving huge efforts to secure good ball and attacking opportunities. Similarly both defences were holding firm, this was going to be a cracker.
The run-out from Boer gave Gloucester a good platform forcing some desperate defence from the Irish, forcing a couple of defenders to dive-in at a ruck. From the penalty Gloucester kicked to touch, and from the line-out the home team stepped up another gear to launch a fizzing break. Again Irish defended wildly doing their best to disrupt the tractor-boys fine efforts. Inevitably an Irish forward was pinged for failing to roll away giving Henry Paul an easy penalty. 10 minutes gone, Glaws 3 – 3 LI.
From a deep start, Gloucester skewed their clearence kick, Irish now had a good attacking position on the Gloucester 22, sadly Adrian Flavin was called for standing on the white-wash to throw-in and the attack was cancelled out, or was it… Irish stole the resulting Gloucester line-out and were back on the attack spreading it wide, the ball ending-up in the hands of magician Paul Sackey who was brilliantly tackled in an isolated position and pinged for holding-on.
Play continued in this fashion at a frantic pace, both sides disrupting their opponents, rucks were turned-over and the ball swapped possession regularly. Irish were showing a lot of ambition, at one time they broke the line with a kick-through by, of all people, Nick Kennedy. We were, at last, playing like a complete team and putting pressure on a fine Gloucester team all round the park. Irish, again were called off-side (it was difficult at the pace to tell where the line was at times) and Gloucester showed their intent by kicking a probable goal into the corner for the catch-and-drive.
Again, in their dominance of the line-out Irish stole the resulting throw but Sackey was caught in-goal by a very fast pack of Cherry and White forwards. With no opportunity to kick Paul was left to try and run the ball to touch which he managed just in front of the corner flag. This time the home team caught their own throw and began the inevitable maul. Irish, showing enormous solidity held them back causing a re-think in the Gloucester attack and the ball was spun-out to run it. Obviously not all the attackers understood as they crossed allowing Irish to relieve huge pressure.
From the Irish line-out the ball was quickly given to Mike Horak on the left who chipped beautifully over the thinly stretched defenders and gathered the ball to move forward 20 or 30 yards. From the tackle on him Irish quickly spread the ball to the right for Sackey to score a fine try out wide. Sdaly it was so wide Barry missed the covnersion. 20 minutes into the match, Glaws 3 – 8 LI.
From the re-start we were treated to the first of Phil Murphy’s now signature runs. He made a decent amount of territory before the ball was passed wide in what to my mind is London Irish’s first miss-pass of the season. The surprise was so great Irish knocked the ball on allowing Henry Paul an attempt at a drop-goal from the resulting scrum. He missed but knew he had the advantage for Irish not rolling away from the tackle and made good with the penalty. 22 minutes, Glaws 6 – 8 LI.
The game went back to its frenetic best, with fine exchanges of possession, again Irish were caught straying off-side allowing Paul another pop at goal and for Gloucester to take their first lead. 25 minutes Glaws 9 – 8 LI.
It was looking as though the home team had absorbed all the Irish pressure and were beginning to assert themselves. Barry’s restart was too long allowing a Gloucester drop out and after a brief advance the Cherry and White’s opted to kick for touch to gain territory. From the lineout the ball was passed out to Horak but the mighty Gloucester team were up on him fast and tackled him gaining another penalty as he held onto the ball. The penalty was taken quickly and had the desired effect as Irish were pulled for not retiring 10 yards. Gloucester kicked the second penalty to touch and set up to drive from the lineout but knocked the ball forward.
Taking full advantage Irish moved the ball out to their right and a blistering run allowed a mighty Geoff Appleford, playing his best game since the 2002 Powergen Cup Final, to completely destroy the stretched Gloucester defence. His offload to Sackey allowed the speedy wing to score his second under the posts which Barry converted. Half an hour gone and Glaws 9 – 15 LI.
Gloucester were obviously appalled to have put in so much effort for so little gain and immediately pushed Irish back into their half. Barry Everitt made a fine clearance to release the pressure and in the following lineout Declan Danaher stole the ball from the home side. Declan then charged on to put the Gloucester backs into disarray, he passed in fine time to Appleford for the centre to score a finely worked try. Again Barry converted. 34 minutes Glaws 9 – 22 LI.
In the run-in to half time the sides exchanged converted penalties with first Irish not rolling from the tackle and then Gloucester holding on in the tackle
Half time – Glaws 12 – 25 LI.
From the restart Gloucester again applied the pressure and were determined to play the game in the Irish half. Horak cleared and the forwards again stole the Cherry and White lineout allowing yet another surging run from everyone’s favourite Spud – Phil Murphy. Gloucester regained possession from a LI knock-on and pushed the ball deep for another pressure lineout. As they had all afternoon, and in a manner very reminiscent of the fine Twickenham game of 2002, the Irish defence again and again held firm.
Eventually the huge pressure told and Simon Amor found a gap, avoiding the tackles of both Casey and Edwards to break the line he made a fine dash to score under the posts. Henry Paull adding the two points. 44 minutes Glaws 19 – 25 LI.
More fine open play with possession swapping back and forth followed the resurgence of the home side. The Irish defence seemed to have been irritated that it had let in a try when it seemed so solid, they held firm and allowed the backs to clear deep into Gloucester territory to Marcel Garvey. The Gloucester wing was faced with Justin Bishop to beat to make ground but as we all know Justin is a terrier at heart and the Gloucester flyer was simply ushered into touch. Quite how Gloucester then got the put in is a mystery to this author, a rare mistake from the fine Geraint Ashton-Jones.
After another period of open play with both sides throwing everything into it Gloucester gained field position and a penalty but opted not to take the points and kicked to touch. It seemed the home side had found another gear and pushed hard for the line from the throw but Irish were still putting in massive defence and disrupted so that the final pass to Garvey was forward. He touched down but the knock-on had been called and Irish could re-group. Doug Wheatley replaced Pierre Durandt after a fine performance.
Whether it was Wheatley’s appearance or simply god old Irish grit the Irish defence actually got even more solid. A number of times the ambitious Gloucester backs passed the ball back and forth across the field but no territory was gained and the ambition came to nothing after a knock-on gave Irish advantage and the backs worked the ball well on the blind-side. In possibly the move of the match a beautiful set of passes from Darren and Barry took Bishop through the line and over for a brilliant try. Barry made good with the extra points and the score moved to Glaws 19 – 32 LI with 15 minutes remaining.
Darren Edwards was now replaced by Kevin Barrett who would have to work hard to come close to a magnificent performance from the scrum-half.
Gloucester again showed that they had not given up and made Irish work harder still to hold them out. Another set of possession-swapping plays ended with Irish holding the ball on the ground and giving Mr Ashton-Jones reason to move the penalty 10 yards forward. Gloucester kept their ambitious plans, kicking to touch forcing Irish to knock-on in the lineout and putting enough pressure for the ref to give a rare hands-in-the-scrum penalty. Again the kick went to touch and the pressure was again building on the incredible Irish defence. Something had to give and it duly did as Henry Paul scampered through the stretched Irish line to score and convert his own try. It was going to be a tense finish, Glaws 26 – 32 LI with 6 minutes on the clock.
Irish showed even more metal as they pushed back at the mighty Cherry and Whites with phase after phase moving the Exiles further and further into Gloucester territory albeit at a snail’s pace. Once enough territory had been gained we could all see the plan as the always-brilliant Barry Everitt dropped the ball over the posts. Glaws 26 – 35 LI and just 3 minutes, was it enough?
The restart was sent back deep to Marcel Garvey who had been run-down by a fine Irish effort all afternoon. With no room and no support he desperately held on and gave the penalty which Irish punted into the corner. Sadly, in the only part of play I can think to criticise, Irish, again, lost the attacking lineout and were forced into defence again.
Gloucester sensed they were running out of time to come back and threw everything into attack. The Irish line was stretched thinner and thinner but the tackles were mighty and the Exiles were determined not to concede. Justin Bishop was called for being a yard offside and, given the circumstances and the class that the home-team were showing sent to the bin. Possibly harsh, but probably about right, Henry Paul made good with the kick to bring Gloucester to within a single score of winning. Glaws 29 – 35 LI but into added time.
The home side did their best to score that try too, again running the Irish defence thin but the men-in-green were not going to give up. In only the second poor refereeing decision of the game Michael Horak was called for an early tackle. Horak sprinted up to the Gloucester ball-carrier who tried to offload but Michael took him and the ball before it was released, he then chased down the ball to pick up and touch down over the goal line but it was disallowed. How it could be an early challenge I cannot say, it was a knock-on so the try wouldn’t count but it was a rare lapse from the otherwise fine refereeing.
We then had to endure the end of the Gloucester’s visit to the Madejski all over again. The game was well into injury time and Gloucester needed a converted try to win. If the ball had gone dead that was it but the home side showed huge spirit and attacked furiously and each time play stopped Irish were pinged for another penalty. Each time Gloucester took the quick tap, knowing that there was no time, and came closer and closer to the Exiles try line. Happily the solid Irish line eventually forced the valiant home team to knock forward, Paul Sackey scooped the ball and kicked directly into touch. The torture was over and we could party.
Full-time Gloucester 29 – 35 London Irish
Attendance: 4812 (although to my eye it had to be over 7K)
It will be difficult to pick a MotM as it was a team performance. Declan was massive and seemingly everywhere, Geoff was in his best form for a very long time, Sackey brilliant as ever, Bob Casey simply never stopped and Phil Murphy did as good an impression of O’Sheasby as I’ve ever seen.
The last word has to be for the Gloucester fans who were, in my experience, the most gracious hosts even when they had been beaten. The shed-heads get a bad press, I’ve added my own vitriol to some of the arguments but yesterday they were superb and a credit to the fine club they support.
Under a cloudless sky we amassed at a sunny Kingsholm, as a pre-match warm-up there was a high-kick “bomb” competition. There were two Gloucester lads versus three London Irish, caused by a slight mix-up when asking for a last LI supporter. With a stinker of a kick to him Bisach failed to repeat his pre-match success of last week at Saracens but MrGoz proved very useful under a number of high balls to come away victorious. If you want more details, or indeed if you don’t, he’ll bore you endlessly with the details later…
With a crate of beer in the bag the Irish were ready for the main event.
Gloucester kicked-off and Irish controlled the ball well and worked it out to the right. Both teams were looking bright and thankfully there was little evidence of the hands-of-spam that have dogged our attacking play since the start of the season. Gloucester eventually failed to release in a tackle in the centre of the field. Barry converted the penalty. Two minutes gone. Glaws 0 – 3 London Irish.
Irish returned the re-start with a kick to touch and from the line-out Gloucester pressed, catching Irish off-side. The kick was taken towards the corner and the cherry and whites pressed from the line-out but the Exiles defence was holding well, eventually forcing Gloucester to illegally handle the ball in a ruck allowing Irish to clear to touch. From the line-out the men-in-green spread it but were caught on the centre-spot, the home team trying, again, to use their hands to turn the ball over giving the Irish a penalty in the centre of the field. Barry attempted the goal but, although he had the right line, dropped it inches short, allowing Jake Boer to catch and run at the visitors.
The play was fast and furious with both teams giving huge efforts to secure good ball and attacking opportunities. Similarly both defences were holding firm, this was going to be a cracker.
The run-out from Boer gave Gloucester a good platform forcing some desperate defence from the Irish, forcing a couple of defenders to dive-in at a ruck. From the penalty Gloucester kicked to touch, and from the line-out the home team stepped up another gear to launch a fizzing break. Again Irish defended wildly doing their best to disrupt the tractor-boys fine efforts. Inevitably an Irish forward was pinged for failing to roll away giving Henry Paul an easy penalty. 10 minutes gone, Glaws 3 – 3 LI.
From a deep start, Gloucester skewed their clearence kick, Irish now had a good attacking position on the Gloucester 22, sadly Adrian Flavin was called for standing on the white-wash to throw-in and the attack was cancelled out, or was it… Irish stole the resulting Gloucester line-out and were back on the attack spreading it wide, the ball ending-up in the hands of magician Paul Sackey who was brilliantly tackled in an isolated position and pinged for holding-on.
Play continued in this fashion at a frantic pace, both sides disrupting their opponents, rucks were turned-over and the ball swapped possession regularly. Irish were showing a lot of ambition, at one time they broke the line with a kick-through by, of all people, Nick Kennedy. We were, at last, playing like a complete team and putting pressure on a fine Gloucester team all round the park. Irish, again were called off-side (it was difficult at the pace to tell where the line was at times) and Gloucester showed their intent by kicking a probable goal into the corner for the catch-and-drive.
Again, in their dominance of the line-out Irish stole the resulting throw but Sackey was caught in-goal by a very fast pack of Cherry and White forwards. With no opportunity to kick Paul was left to try and run the ball to touch which he managed just in front of the corner flag. This time the home team caught their own throw and began the inevitable maul. Irish, showing enormous solidity held them back causing a re-think in the Gloucester attack and the ball was spun-out to run it. Obviously not all the attackers understood as they crossed allowing Irish to relieve huge pressure.
From the Irish line-out the ball was quickly given to Mike Horak on the left who chipped beautifully over the thinly stretched defenders and gathered the ball to move forward 20 or 30 yards. From the tackle on him Irish quickly spread the ball to the right for Sackey to score a fine try out wide. Sdaly it was so wide Barry missed the covnersion. 20 minutes into the match, Glaws 3 – 8 LI.
From the re-start we were treated to the first of Phil Murphy’s now signature runs. He made a decent amount of territory before the ball was passed wide in what to my mind is London Irish’s first miss-pass of the season. The surprise was so great Irish knocked the ball on allowing Henry Paul an attempt at a drop-goal from the resulting scrum. He missed but knew he had the advantage for Irish not rolling away from the tackle and made good with the penalty. 22 minutes, Glaws 6 – 8 LI.
The game went back to its frenetic best, with fine exchanges of possession, again Irish were caught straying off-side allowing Paul another pop at goal and for Gloucester to take their first lead. 25 minutes Glaws 9 – 8 LI.
It was looking as though the home team had absorbed all the Irish pressure and were beginning to assert themselves. Barry’s restart was too long allowing a Gloucester drop out and after a brief advance the Cherry and White’s opted to kick for touch to gain territory. From the lineout the ball was passed out to Horak but the mighty Gloucester team were up on him fast and tackled him gaining another penalty as he held onto the ball. The penalty was taken quickly and had the desired effect as Irish were pulled for not retiring 10 yards. Gloucester kicked the second penalty to touch and set up to drive from the lineout but knocked the ball forward.
Taking full advantage Irish moved the ball out to their right and a blistering run allowed a mighty Geoff Appleford, playing his best game since the 2002 Powergen Cup Final, to completely destroy the stretched Gloucester defence. His offload to Sackey allowed the speedy wing to score his second under the posts which Barry converted. Half an hour gone and Glaws 9 – 15 LI.
Gloucester were obviously appalled to have put in so much effort for so little gain and immediately pushed Irish back into their half. Barry Everitt made a fine clearance to release the pressure and in the following lineout Declan Danaher stole the ball from the home side. Declan then charged on to put the Gloucester backs into disarray, he passed in fine time to Appleford for the centre to score a finely worked try. Again Barry converted. 34 minutes Glaws 9 – 22 LI.
In the run-in to half time the sides exchanged converted penalties with first Irish not rolling from the tackle and then Gloucester holding on in the tackle
Half time – Glaws 12 – 25 LI.
From the restart Gloucester again applied the pressure and were determined to play the game in the Irish half. Horak cleared and the forwards again stole the Cherry and White lineout allowing yet another surging run from everyone’s favourite Spud – Phil Murphy. Gloucester regained possession from a LI knock-on and pushed the ball deep for another pressure lineout. As they had all afternoon, and in a manner very reminiscent of the fine Twickenham game of 2002, the Irish defence again and again held firm.
Eventually the huge pressure told and Simon Amor found a gap, avoiding the tackles of both Casey and Edwards to break the line he made a fine dash to score under the posts. Henry Paull adding the two points. 44 minutes Glaws 19 – 25 LI.
More fine open play with possession swapping back and forth followed the resurgence of the home side. The Irish defence seemed to have been irritated that it had let in a try when it seemed so solid, they held firm and allowed the backs to clear deep into Gloucester territory to Marcel Garvey. The Gloucester wing was faced with Justin Bishop to beat to make ground but as we all know Justin is a terrier at heart and the Gloucester flyer was simply ushered into touch. Quite how Gloucester then got the put in is a mystery to this author, a rare mistake from the fine Geraint Ashton-Jones.
After another period of open play with both sides throwing everything into it Gloucester gained field position and a penalty but opted not to take the points and kicked to touch. It seemed the home side had found another gear and pushed hard for the line from the throw but Irish were still putting in massive defence and disrupted so that the final pass to Garvey was forward. He touched down but the knock-on had been called and Irish could re-group. Doug Wheatley replaced Pierre Durandt after a fine performance.
Whether it was Wheatley’s appearance or simply god old Irish grit the Irish defence actually got even more solid. A number of times the ambitious Gloucester backs passed the ball back and forth across the field but no territory was gained and the ambition came to nothing after a knock-on gave Irish advantage and the backs worked the ball well on the blind-side. In possibly the move of the match a beautiful set of passes from Darren and Barry took Bishop through the line and over for a brilliant try. Barry made good with the extra points and the score moved to Glaws 19 – 32 LI with 15 minutes remaining.
Darren Edwards was now replaced by Kevin Barrett who would have to work hard to come close to a magnificent performance from the scrum-half.
Gloucester again showed that they had not given up and made Irish work harder still to hold them out. Another set of possession-swapping plays ended with Irish holding the ball on the ground and giving Mr Ashton-Jones reason to move the penalty 10 yards forward. Gloucester kept their ambitious plans, kicking to touch forcing Irish to knock-on in the lineout and putting enough pressure for the ref to give a rare hands-in-the-scrum penalty. Again the kick went to touch and the pressure was again building on the incredible Irish defence. Something had to give and it duly did as Henry Paul scampered through the stretched Irish line to score and convert his own try. It was going to be a tense finish, Glaws 26 – 32 LI with 6 minutes on the clock.
Irish showed even more metal as they pushed back at the mighty Cherry and Whites with phase after phase moving the Exiles further and further into Gloucester territory albeit at a snail’s pace. Once enough territory had been gained we could all see the plan as the always-brilliant Barry Everitt dropped the ball over the posts. Glaws 26 – 35 LI and just 3 minutes, was it enough?
The restart was sent back deep to Marcel Garvey who had been run-down by a fine Irish effort all afternoon. With no room and no support he desperately held on and gave the penalty which Irish punted into the corner. Sadly, in the only part of play I can think to criticise, Irish, again, lost the attacking lineout and were forced into defence again.
Gloucester sensed they were running out of time to come back and threw everything into attack. The Irish line was stretched thinner and thinner but the tackles were mighty and the Exiles were determined not to concede. Justin Bishop was called for being a yard offside and, given the circumstances and the class that the home-team were showing sent to the bin. Possibly harsh, but probably about right, Henry Paul made good with the kick to bring Gloucester to within a single score of winning. Glaws 29 – 35 LI but into added time.
The home side did their best to score that try too, again running the Irish defence thin but the men-in-green were not going to give up. In only the second poor refereeing decision of the game Michael Horak was called for an early tackle. Horak sprinted up to the Gloucester ball-carrier who tried to offload but Michael took him and the ball before it was released, he then chased down the ball to pick up and touch down over the goal line but it was disallowed. How it could be an early challenge I cannot say, it was a knock-on so the try wouldn’t count but it was a rare lapse from the otherwise fine refereeing.
We then had to endure the end of the Gloucester’s visit to the Madejski all over again. The game was well into injury time and Gloucester needed a converted try to win. If the ball had gone dead that was it but the home side showed huge spirit and attacked furiously and each time play stopped Irish were pinged for another penalty. Each time Gloucester took the quick tap, knowing that there was no time, and came closer and closer to the Exiles try line. Happily the solid Irish line eventually forced the valiant home team to knock forward, Paul Sackey scooped the ball and kicked directly into touch. The torture was over and we could party.
Full-time Gloucester 29 – 35 London Irish
Attendance: 4812 (although to my eye it had to be over 7K)
It will be difficult to pick a MotM as it was a team performance. Declan was massive and seemingly everywhere, Geoff was in his best form for a very long time, Sackey brilliant as ever, Bob Casey simply never stopped and Phil Murphy did as good an impression of O’Sheasby as I’ve ever seen.
The last word has to be for the Gloucester fans who were, in my experience, the most gracious hosts even when they had been beaten. The shed-heads get a bad press, I’ve added my own vitriol to some of the arguments but yesterday they were superb and a credit to the fine club they support.
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