Shark!
What a Cha(m)bals
Shark!
By DrV'sHariyCraic
September 19 2005
On a not too bad evening (by Stockport standards), 100 or so loyal craicsters assembled in the Edgeley Park cheap seats knowing that this was going to be the biggest test of the new look, new style London Irish.
Shark!
September 19 2005
On a not too bad evening (by Stockport standards), 100 or so loyal craicsters assembled in the Edgeley Park cheap seats knowing that this was going to be the biggest test of the new look, new style London Irish.
Some were apprehensive, others, including myself were quietly confident that, with a good performance, we will continue to hold our hex over Sale (well, I have a dream).
The evening began for us as it was to continue, with a scrappy ruck, a won lineout/maul turned over & Delon dropping a kick that was straight into the bread basket.
And it was a continuation of this scrappyness that led to Delon missing touch from a clearance that gave the Sharks backs their first chance to show their ability. And they did. Good lines, quick hands & quick support lead to Robinson jinking past the last defender, who had already been ran out of position, & scoring Sale’s first try with just 5 mins on the clock. A Hodgeson conversion makes it 7-0.
The general scrappiness by both sides led to a bit of handbags between Magne & Sheridan followed shortly afterwards by Chabal getting queenie with Delon. It must be a French voules-vous type thingy!
It didn’t take long for the scrappy play to lead to indiscipline, and it was no surprise when Skuse got pinged for not rolling away, leaving Hodgeson with an easy 3 pointer. But this is the unpredictable Charlie Hodgeson & he misses. 7-0 still.
After the early mistakes by Delon, it was inevitable that Sale would put him under pressure whenever possible. But Delon was to buckle no more. A test lead to a kick & chase where he was obstructed, not as cynically as we have seen before, but obstructed all the same. The ref, Rob Debney, saw it & gave the penalty where the ball landed. This time, it was decided that Barry should take the easy 3 on offer. And he did. 19 mins & 7-3. Yes there was a few whistles & jeers, but not much.
This seemed to be the boost that the team needed. Ok, we had won a few Sale lineouts and, believe it not, pressured them in the scrum a few times, but now there was purpose. The creative play started going places. Overlaps were made (usually missed, but made) & yards were gained.
What a lovely 10 minutes that was!
Because then came a period of strong Sharks pressure. Starting with them opting for a scrum when they had a penalty 10 from our line. Scrum 1 leads to a Shark’s penalty. They scrum down again & a this also leads to a Shark’s penalty. Sounds kind of familiar. Then on scrum 3, we steal it!
As normal time in the 1st half draws to an end, more Sale pressure goes nowhere so when they were next awarded a penalty for offside, they go for the posts. This time Hodgeson was successful. 10-3.
Not being one of those new gadget clocks, there’s a few minutes left. 5 mins in & Scotty collects from a broken Sharks move& kicks ahead, a desperate clearance by Billy wizz would have given us our best chance for a score, but the ref wanted his orange segments & called for half time.
I’ve used the word scrappy a lot so far to describe our performance. And quite rightly so. If we really have ambitions of a league position outside of the relegation dogfight, we have to play a lot better than that. At the time, most of us were just glad that Sale weren’t playing like a team highly tipped for a top 4 place. It was a fair scoreline for 2 teams that were seriously underperforming.
Knowing that Ashley Rowden was the 4th official, The Sharks laid on a bevy of dancing girls for the half time entertainment. The Sale mascot (Sharky or something original like that) joined in & showed himself to be a real dancing queen.
Hardwick replaces Skuse for the 2nd half & just 3 mins in, Gussie replaces Magne who hobbles off the field.
More scrappy play by both sides leads to a Sale scrum. The resulting play leads to some more good movement by the Sale backs, especially in the midfield. It just seemed inevitable that the holes created would lead to a try. And so it was with Larrechea carrying over. Where is our fabled defence? Sale just came straight through. Every Shark who took the ball into contact crossed the gain line. It was all too easy for them. A missed conversion makes it 15-3.
Not yet ready to go to the sword, we responded quickly, Hatley pushed himself over the line only to be penalised for a double movement.
And then Sebastian Chabel, the super trouper who’d had a reasonably good but slightly anonymous game so far decided it was time to kill us off & give the 7,246 viewers a rugby masterclass & show us what the name of the game really is.
From then on, he was everywhere, breaking lines & tackling like a demon. He inspired Sale to play like a team with ambition. The whole Sale team followed his lead & we met our Waterloo.
We did have our opportunities but decided to waste them. A drop by Scotty, a massive overlap missed by donkeys in the line, line outs stolen, bad decision making, (insert error type here). The backs just pass from side to side & go nowhere. They’re not crabbing a la last year, but it’s not too far off.
Half way through the half & Paice & Willis replace Flav & Dodge.
Willis’s 1st bit of action was to collect a pass while in the 10 position. He dropped it (backwards) & Sale were unlucky not to score. 2 mins later & a long pass by Willis while running out from just beyond our 22 is intercepted by Chabel, who saw it coming from a mile away. An easy run to the posts leaves an even easier conversion for Hodgeson. 22-3.
Not a good start for Willis. He didn’t need telling; he knew it, we all knew it!
The SOS call goes out & Collins is on for Hatley, shortly followed by Nick & Geraghty for Roach & Catt. Things don’t get any better. Sale are still finding it far too easy to break the line, especially in the midfield.
Desperation sets in & things go from bad to worst. Bish is in space on the wing shouting “gimme, gimme, gimme” but Spenda’s pass is just to far ahead of him & goes nowhere. 30 secs later, Delon does the same with Scotty. Does anyone know where we can get some butterfly nets?
And then just before the end of normal time, the inevitable happened. The Sharks had torn our defences to pieces leaving Cueto to make an easy shimmy past Delon to become the 1st player in English professional history to score in 7 consecutive competitive games. A very fine achievement indeed! And if Sale play like they did in the second half again next week, he could easily make it 8. A hodgeson conversion makes it 29-3.
Finally, the ref shows the 100 travellers some mercy & blows his whistle. A sarcastic reminder of the score by the announcer tells us what we really don’t need to hear.
So, what’s good, what’s bad, what works, what doesn’t?
It now seems as if oppo teams are waking up to our long passing & runs out of the danger zone & are looking for intercept opportunities. Chabel certainly was. It was also apparent that this type of back play could leave our backs being supported only by other backs. There was a time on Friday when the backs were doing the donkey work, the donkeys were in the line & Ryan was playing full back. When Dom is fit enough to play, we may get away with backs as donkeys, but at times it’s just not working. Maybe we’re trying to be too expansive.
The defence in the close was good. Many times, we held up well on the line & came away with the ball. The defence was not so good in the midfield from 3rd/4th phase play. They just tore straight through.
We won some of their lines & lost too many of our own. We pressured some Sale scrums (& won a couple) & got shoved off the park in many others. Yet surprisingly, we managed clean ball out more often than not.
So there it was, some good moves & ambition but an error count looking far too scarily like last seasons. And yet again, we make it far too easy for the opposition.
The evening began for us as it was to continue, with a scrappy ruck, a won lineout/maul turned over & Delon dropping a kick that was straight into the bread basket.
And it was a continuation of this scrappyness that led to Delon missing touch from a clearance that gave the Sharks backs their first chance to show their ability. And they did. Good lines, quick hands & quick support lead to Robinson jinking past the last defender, who had already been ran out of position, & scoring Sale’s first try with just 5 mins on the clock. A Hodgeson conversion makes it 7-0.
The general scrappiness by both sides led to a bit of handbags between Magne & Sheridan followed shortly afterwards by Chabal getting queenie with Delon. It must be a French voules-vous type thingy!
It didn’t take long for the scrappy play to lead to indiscipline, and it was no surprise when Skuse got pinged for not rolling away, leaving Hodgeson with an easy 3 pointer. But this is the unpredictable Charlie Hodgeson & he misses. 7-0 still.
After the early mistakes by Delon, it was inevitable that Sale would put him under pressure whenever possible. But Delon was to buckle no more. A test lead to a kick & chase where he was obstructed, not as cynically as we have seen before, but obstructed all the same. The ref, Rob Debney, saw it & gave the penalty where the ball landed. This time, it was decided that Barry should take the easy 3 on offer. And he did. 19 mins & 7-3. Yes there was a few whistles & jeers, but not much.
This seemed to be the boost that the team needed. Ok, we had won a few Sale lineouts and, believe it not, pressured them in the scrum a few times, but now there was purpose. The creative play started going places. Overlaps were made (usually missed, but made) & yards were gained.
What a lovely 10 minutes that was!
Because then came a period of strong Sharks pressure. Starting with them opting for a scrum when they had a penalty 10 from our line. Scrum 1 leads to a Shark’s penalty. They scrum down again & a this also leads to a Shark’s penalty. Sounds kind of familiar. Then on scrum 3, we steal it!
As normal time in the 1st half draws to an end, more Sale pressure goes nowhere so when they were next awarded a penalty for offside, they go for the posts. This time Hodgeson was successful. 10-3.
Not being one of those new gadget clocks, there’s a few minutes left. 5 mins in & Scotty collects from a broken Sharks move& kicks ahead, a desperate clearance by Billy wizz would have given us our best chance for a score, but the ref wanted his orange segments & called for half time.
I’ve used the word scrappy a lot so far to describe our performance. And quite rightly so. If we really have ambitions of a league position outside of the relegation dogfight, we have to play a lot better than that. At the time, most of us were just glad that Sale weren’t playing like a team highly tipped for a top 4 place. It was a fair scoreline for 2 teams that were seriously underperforming.
Knowing that Ashley Rowden was the 4th official, The Sharks laid on a bevy of dancing girls for the half time entertainment. The Sale mascot (Sharky or something original like that) joined in & showed himself to be a real dancing queen.
Hardwick replaces Skuse for the 2nd half & just 3 mins in, Gussie replaces Magne who hobbles off the field.
More scrappy play by both sides leads to a Sale scrum. The resulting play leads to some more good movement by the Sale backs, especially in the midfield. It just seemed inevitable that the holes created would lead to a try. And so it was with Larrechea carrying over. Where is our fabled defence? Sale just came straight through. Every Shark who took the ball into contact crossed the gain line. It was all too easy for them. A missed conversion makes it 15-3.
Not yet ready to go to the sword, we responded quickly, Hatley pushed himself over the line only to be penalised for a double movement.
And then Sebastian Chabel, the super trouper who’d had a reasonably good but slightly anonymous game so far decided it was time to kill us off & give the 7,246 viewers a rugby masterclass & show us what the name of the game really is.
From then on, he was everywhere, breaking lines & tackling like a demon. He inspired Sale to play like a team with ambition. The whole Sale team followed his lead & we met our Waterloo.
We did have our opportunities but decided to waste them. A drop by Scotty, a massive overlap missed by donkeys in the line, line outs stolen, bad decision making, (insert error type here). The backs just pass from side to side & go nowhere. They’re not crabbing a la last year, but it’s not too far off.
Half way through the half & Paice & Willis replace Flav & Dodge.
Willis’s 1st bit of action was to collect a pass while in the 10 position. He dropped it (backwards) & Sale were unlucky not to score. 2 mins later & a long pass by Willis while running out from just beyond our 22 is intercepted by Chabel, who saw it coming from a mile away. An easy run to the posts leaves an even easier conversion for Hodgeson. 22-3.
Not a good start for Willis. He didn’t need telling; he knew it, we all knew it!
The SOS call goes out & Collins is on for Hatley, shortly followed by Nick & Geraghty for Roach & Catt. Things don’t get any better. Sale are still finding it far too easy to break the line, especially in the midfield.
Desperation sets in & things go from bad to worst. Bish is in space on the wing shouting “gimme, gimme, gimme” but Spenda’s pass is just to far ahead of him & goes nowhere. 30 secs later, Delon does the same with Scotty. Does anyone know where we can get some butterfly nets?
And then just before the end of normal time, the inevitable happened. The Sharks had torn our defences to pieces leaving Cueto to make an easy shimmy past Delon to become the 1st player in English professional history to score in 7 consecutive competitive games. A very fine achievement indeed! And if Sale play like they did in the second half again next week, he could easily make it 8. A hodgeson conversion makes it 29-3.
Finally, the ref shows the 100 travellers some mercy & blows his whistle. A sarcastic reminder of the score by the announcer tells us what we really don’t need to hear.
So, what’s good, what’s bad, what works, what doesn’t?
It now seems as if oppo teams are waking up to our long passing & runs out of the danger zone & are looking for intercept opportunities. Chabel certainly was. It was also apparent that this type of back play could leave our backs being supported only by other backs. There was a time on Friday when the backs were doing the donkey work, the donkeys were in the line & Ryan was playing full back. When Dom is fit enough to play, we may get away with backs as donkeys, but at times it’s just not working. Maybe we’re trying to be too expansive.
The defence in the close was good. Many times, we held up well on the line & came away with the ball. The defence was not so good in the midfield from 3rd/4th phase play. They just tore straight through.
We won some of their lines & lost too many of our own. We pressured some Sale scrums (& won a couple) & got shoved off the park in many others. Yet surprisingly, we managed clean ball out more often than not.
So there it was, some good moves & ambition but an error count looking far too scarily like last seasons. And yet again, we make it far too easy for the opposition.
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