Your man at the match – Big Papi

If they win but play badly or, even worse, lose then the prophets of doom circle, fatty and the hairdresser have a good chuckle and the rest of the GP licks their lips and pencils in their fixture with Irish as a sure fire 5 pointer. All they can do is treat the game seriously, try to play with the same passion and commitment that they would in a GP game and try to score a few tries.

This they did and did well.

I promised you an overview and an overview you shall have.

First impression of the day is of having to sit in the car, in the car park waiting on the rain easing off enough to get out and make a mad dash for the cowshed. That achieved the band were in fine form and the AG was acceptable (especially as StevieJ paid). It was fairly obvious even at this stage that we were not going to see one of our larger crowds of the season. So to the East Stand and a seat high up to allow your humble reporter a good view of the action.

I will now attempt to describe all of the highlights as I saw them and if I have got some details wrong – well you try and get every detail right in a 10 try match.

3 mins. in and Parma knocked on about 5 metres outside their 22, as the ref played advantage the ball was picked up by Franze, he fed Stan who outpaced the defence to score under the posts. Flutey added “the extras” as those two delightful northern chaps who commentate on the Rugby League for Sky sports like to say.

7-0 Irish.

In the 6^th minute another break by Stan looked like bringing a second try but he was caught a couple of metres from the line and lacking support Parma were able to turn over possession.

In the 7^th minute Irish were awarded a penalty for not rolling away. It was right in front of the posts and just outside the 22. For the only time during the match Irish decided to go for the posts and amazingly “magic” missed it.

On 11 minutes Irish put together a good handling move which finished with Delon hard against the touchline about 5 metres out but he ran out of room and the ball went out. From the resultant line out Parma won possession and kicked back up towards halfway.

My notes at this stage state “Overall play a little disjointed - lots of possession but lots of basic errors – Parma forwards holding their own”.

On 16 minutes came the breakthrough – A nice handling move between Stan and Michael resulted in Stan knocking on just feet from the line. The ref called the scrum with Parma’s put in but Parma then dropped the ball behind their line as they attempted to clear. Scrum 5 to Irish. This time the ref blew for a penalty (not sure what for – could have been an early shove by the Parma pack). Quick thinking Murph took a tap penalty and dived over the line. Magic again missed the conversion 12-0 Irish.

On 20 minutes Franze had a nice break and chip ahead but the kick went too far and we were brought back for a scrum to Parma. This provided one of the afternoon’s funnier moments as the Parma Scrummy fed in, and the ball shot right through coming out the other side of the scrum without anybody touching it to the great amusement of the West Stand faithful.

During this period Irish were beginning to put together some nice handling moves one of which resulted in a scrum in front of the posts. Incredibly the pack got wheeled and Parma gained the put in. From this scrum Parma put together their most dangerous break of the first half with only a great tackle by Stan a few metres outside the Irish 22 preventing a possible try.

Irish’s 3^rd try came after about 25 minutes. A great break by El Ninho who was finally brought down just outside the 22. A ruck formed, Irish got quick ball to Franze who cut a nice line before feeding Delon who finished in the left hand corner. Another missed conversion by Magic although this one was from a much more difficult angle. Still by his own high standards he was not kicking well. It was also noticeable that a lot of the kicking from hand was now being handled by Catty. So was Rikki carrying a little injury or was he just having an off day?

On the 34^th minute Irish wrapped up the bonus point and effectively finished the game as a contest (if it ever had been ).

A line out was well won by Big Bob. Willis broke through, drew the full back and passed for El Ninho to go over under the posts. Flutey converted.

At this point your humble reporter was struggling to write down the details of this try when Irish scored again.

Straight from kick off the ball was collected by Murph who set off on one of his usual kamikaze runs. The ball passed through a couple of hands (and I am really not sure whose) to end up at Awesome who got the ball, probably about the half way line and just kept running until he dropped over the whitewash for try no. 5. This was converted by Flutey for a half time score of 31-0.

Thoughts on the half:

LI well ahead, Parma never really threatened our line although their forwards held their own at scrum and line out. Their defending was brave but it was proving to be pretty easy for Irish to get over the gain line. Any time Parma threatened to break out of defence poor handling or kicking tended to hand possession back to Irish.

For Irish the only blots on the horizon were Flutey’s kicking which had been no where near the standards he has set himself in the last few weeks, and the forwards getting wheeled at a couple of scrums. With Bath coming up next week this is a bit of a worry.

The half time entertainment of an Ultimate Frisbee competition was hugely entertaining.

On to the second half and as you might expect Irish made a few changes.

Franze was replaced by Dodge.
Nils Mordt came on for Catty.
Rautenbach for Skusey.
Robbie Russell for Flavin
And Barry came on for Magic.

Within a couple of minutes of the re-start Irish had crossed the whitewash again. This time the spadework was done by Awesome and Barry who released Michael Horak to fend off a couple of weak challenges and get over close to the posts. Barry converted. 38-0.

There now followed a period of the match where Parma finally won some territory and threatened the Irish line. A couple of nice handling moves allowed them to get over the gain line a few times but usually they spilled the ball in contact or took the wrong option and kicked away possession. Irish had taken their foot off the gas a bit and were giving away a few penalties. On 52 minutes Michael was sin-binned for deliberate hands in the ruck. From this incident Parma had a line out about 5 metres out from our line but Irish managed to nick the line out and were awarded a penalty from the resultant ruck.

To their credit Parma ignored a couple of kickable penalties and went for the line out option but their line out which had been pretty secure in the first half was now beginning to come under pressure from Bob and co.

Around this time (about 50 minutes) El Ninho was substituted with Gussie coming on.

On 59 minutes it looked like Parma had finally got the try they deserved and which I don’t think any LI fan in the ground would have grudged them. After going through several phases just inside the Irish 22 the little scrum half picked a nice line between defenders and dived over the line. From my angle it looked like a try but at some point he had managed to lose the ball forward. I really have no idea how this happened perhaps someone in the West Stand can enlighten me.

On 62 minutes Strudders came on for Murph and on 64 minutes Michael came back on after his sin-binning.

Irish had had their little breather now and turned up the heat for a grandstand finish.

On 66 minutes they turned over Parma possession and spun it out to the left where Nils Mordt put in a nicely judged grubber kick, Stan tried to pick it up as it bounced, did a little juggling with it as he tried to get a grip of it while fending off a defender the ball spilled free, the ref indicated it had gone backwards and Delon picked it up to go over to the side of the posts. Baz converted easily to bring the score to 45-0.

By now what resistance Parma had been able to put up had really crumbled. They were tired and their heads were down and Irish could really do what they liked.

It was time for the party pieces.

On about 70 minutes a nice break by Nils and a clever reverse pass let Barry go over unopposed right under the posts. Baz got up dusted himself down and knocked over the conversion for 52-0.

On 78 minutes Mordt took possession on the Irish 22, passed to Michael who broke through a gaping hole in the Parma defence and passed to Stan who changed the angle to go over to the right of the posts. Barry missed the conversion for 57-0.

With the 80 minutes up and most Irish fans and (I suspect) players happy to see the ref blow his whistle and put an end to Parma’s misery, the Parma scrummy tried a floated pass towards their left wing about 10 metres outside their 22. An Irish player which I think was Big bob but might not have been leapt up and palmed it down into Stan’s hands. Almost apologetically Scott ambled towards the line and dotted down under the posts.

Barry converted and the referee blew the final whistle for a 64-0 win.

What can we take from this:

Well any win is good. It builds confidence and team spirit. Its nice to get away from the pressure of the GP, see Irish throw the ball around, unleash their speedy and powerful backs and run in a few tries.

Against that is the danger that we could pick up injuries, which could have a serious impact on the most important target for the season – finishing in as high a position as possible in the GP.

I don’t know of any serious knocks although Robbie Russell went off with a blood injury and never came back (or if he did I missed him. In a game with as many tries as this one you spend an incredible amount of time with your head in the notebook instead of watching the game).

Also there is the possibility of a trophy here. Albeit one which the media pretty much ignore but one which, if we could win it, would certainly help with our marketing departments efforts to publicise the club and get more interest from floating potential supporters in the Thames Valley. So it is a fine balancing act for the management and one which, so far, we seem to have got about right. It’s looking like we have a real chance of qualifying from this section. The two matches against Agen in December will be the deciders.

One last comedic moment to leave you all with. About half way through the second half the ref calls a scrum about the half way line in front of the East Stand. The ref spots blood on Faan Rautenbach’s face, stops the clock and indicates to the big chap that he should go off for treatment. Faan disengages from the scrum, pulls down his sleeve, wipes the blood away then re-engages for the scrum. Cue the East Stand, several of the players and even the ref to collapse with laughter.

All in all then Irish did what they had to do and did it pretty well. There were some excellent performances and, as far as I could tell, no serious injuries.

Bigger challenges await starting with Bath next week.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon