This caused us to miss the Cowshed and the customary pre-match beer but nevertheless we were able to get to our seats in time for a hearty chorus of “Fields” and the team announcements.

First surprise was – no Paul Franze at outside centre with Rob Penney being named instead. I believe Paul became a father this week so congrats to him but all of us desperate to see how he performs in a first team fixture will have to wait a little longer.

To the game and from the start Cardiff launched a series of attacks on the Irish line. Eventually the ball was spun out to their right wing and the Irish defence got pinged for offside. The penalty was duly converted from just right of the posts by stand off Nicky Robinson. 0-3 to Cardiff Blues.

From the restart Irish were awarded a penalty (not sure what for) in a highly kickable position and elected to kick for touch. A statement of intent if ever I saw one. From the resultant catch and drive Cardiff were again penalised for coming in from the side. This time LI elected to take the scrummage option. Once again Cardiff were penalised although I could not see the referees signal so I am not sure what this one was for. This time the captain was called over and warned. LI took a tap to the forwards who formed a rolling maul and drove over the line for Paul Gustard to touch down.
The conversion was duly slotted by Laidlaw. 7-3 to Irish.

On 8 mins Mikey Horak had to go off for a blood injury and was replaced by Barry Everitt who soon showed us why he has never played full back before. He completely misjudged the flight of the first kick which was aimed towards him; scampered back to recover the ball then his clearance kick came off the side of his boot and flew out for a line out to Cardiff just outside the LI 22. In fairness to Barry he had just come on and he was playing in an unfamiliar position nevertheless it was a relief when Mike came back on with about 15 minutes on the clock.

By this time Cardiff had added a second penalty to their score. This came in about 12 minutes and again followed a spell of pressure resulting in Mr. Davey pinging Irish for offside again. The kick was from a similar position and Nicky Robinson duly despatched it. 7-6 to Irish.

On 16 minutes Mr Davey pinged Irish for not rolling away. This was a more difficult kick in that although it was just about straight in front of the posts it was only a metre or two inside the Irish half. Mr Robinson proved that he was fallible and pulled it wide.

At this stage the Irish pack was bossing the scrum and maul and on 20 minutes a magnificent rolling maul took them from within their own half to about the Cardiff 22. A couple of phases later and Irish were camped on the Cardiff line when some illegal goings on in the maul which I couldn’t see but Mr Davey could resulted in a penalty to Irish and the Cardiff No 7 (Robin Sowden-Taylor, I think) being yellow carded.

LI took the tap penalty and we witnessed a carbon copy of the first try with the forwards again rolling over the line and Gussie being at the bottom of the heap with the ball safely touched down. Once again Ross Laidlaw converted the try for a score of 14-6 to Irish.

Play was a bit scrappy hereabouts with Cardiff trying to get to grips with the way Irish were playing and Irish having seen how the forwards were dominating quite content to let them ruck and maul their way upfield. Little was being seen of the dangerous young backs we were all looking forward to seeing. This changed on 30 minutes when another rolling maul was halted by Cardiff about the half way line, the forwards had done their job though of sucking in some of the Cardiff cover defence and when the ball was spun out to Laidlaw he gave a little shimmy between two defenders, drew the full back and passed to Rob Penney who was steaming up on his shoulder. Penney took the pass at pace and raced over the line unopposed. The try was converted by Laidlaw and Irish were ahead 21-6.

Although Irish were well ahead on the score sheet Cardiff had looked dangerous on the break and on 34 minutes they got their reward. Their forwards set up a driving maul of their own which sent the Irish defence rocketing backwards. Keiron Dawson did something illegal to stop it (he may have pulled it down but I couldn’t see from where I was sitting). Awesome was duly yellow carded and Cardiff kicked the penalty to touch. From the tap down from the line out scrum half Mike Phillips darted between two defenders to touch down. The try was converted by Nicky Robinson and we went in at half time with Irish leading by 21-13.

Reflections of the first half were that Irish probably deserved to be ahead but in the last ten minutes of the half Cardiff seemed to getting the upper hand with their forwards getting more joy in the scrum and in the ruck and maul.

To the second half and Irish made one change which was Paul “Dodge” Hodgson on for Darren Edwards at scrum half.

In the first minute of the second half we had the slightly bizarre situation of both teams having a potential overlap but both managing to spill the ball forward when a pass to hand could have resulted in a score.

On 44 minutes the first real try scoring chance of the second half fell to Topsy who had been starved of the ball in the first half. He hacked on from broken play just about on half way and led the chase for the ball as it headed at high speed for the Cardiff line. Unfortunately he could not pick it up and only managed to knock it on. Or at least that was Mr Davey’s decision although a look at the replay on the big screen might have shown him that in fact Topsy missed it completely and the chasing Cardiff defender booted the ball dead. So the put in to the scrum should have been Irish’s not Cardiff’s.

During this first ten minutes of the second half Irish were conceding more and more territory to Cardiff but were looking dangerous on the break. On 51 minutes Richard Thorpe came on for the two try hero Gussie who left the field to well deserved applause.

Just after this another nice break from Laidlaw created an overlap but with two men outside him Ross saw the line and tried to go into a non existent gap and got swallowed up by Cardiff tacklers and the chance went begging. We had another period of LI pressure with a couple of 5 metre scrums but by this time Cardiff’s forwards were starting to get the upper hand in the scrum and managed to prevent Irish from getting any useable clean ball.

15 minutes into the second half and two magnificent tackles by Irish right on their own line held up firstly Mike Phillips and then Deiniol Jones when they looked as if they were over. Eventually a poor angled kick relieved the pressure but it was only temporary and back came Cardiff again and one of Mr Davey’s more controversial decisions.

My reading of this incident was that Davey was playing advantage to Cardiff for a penalty infringement by Irish. Phillips appeared to break through the tackles and was headed for the line with no one to stop him when Mr. Davey called him back for the original penalty. The Cardiff supporters around us went nuts but my own view was that the referee saw some blocking or crossing in the move and therefore had to halt the advantage and come back for the original penalty. So, IMHO, I believe Mr Davey got that one right.

On about 60 minutes Cardiff finally got the score their pressure deserved. They kicked a penalty to touch about 5 metres from the LI line and from the resultant catch and drive the hooker Gareth Williams went over for the score. Nicky Robinson duly converted and suddenly to coin the immortal phrase of Sir Alex Ferguson it was squeaky bum time, 21-20 to Irish.

From the restart a pass to Shane Geraghty a side step and the feisty Andy Powell took him somewhere around the Adams Apple. Penalty for a high tackle, Mr Davey reached into his pocket for the yellow card, realised he had left the cards in the dressing room and settled for a stern talking to. Barry Everitt, who had come on for Ross Laidlaw on about 58 minutes duly converted and Irish had a little breathing space, 24-20.

On 67 minutes Irish got pinged for not rolling away and Nicky Robinson again brought the score back to a 1 point difference 24-23 to Irish.

On 70 minutes Cardiff were awarded another penalty on the Irish 22 but almost on the touchline for Irish playing the ball in the ruck. We held our breath but Robinson missed pulling his effort well wide and bringing a derisive roar from the West Standers who had a better view of it than us Eastie Beasties.

With about 4 minutes to go and Cardiff getting increasingly desperate to get into the Irish half a good tackle on their no 4 Jones, turned him, and gained possession, the ball went back to Shane Geraghty who dropped a marvellous goal from about 30 metres, Irish 27, Cardiff 23 and that is the way it finished.

What do we take out of this game. Well the plusses were good performances in the backs from Laidlaw and Geraghty. Topsy and Dom on the wings were a bit starved of possession so it’s difficult to be too critical of them. They both tackled well but we never saw them where we really wanted to see then running at pace at defenders in the last third of the pitch. Edwards played well in the first half and Hodgson was immense when he came on putting in some incredible tackles and probing passes and kicks. Mike Horak didn’t have one of his better games but will be the better for getting that game time under his belt.

On the whole the forwards played well. This, remember was a pack minus Rautenbach, Coetzee, Casey, Kennedy and Murphy. They bossed the scrum and gave Cardiff real problems particularly with the rolling maul. The geezer man had an excellent game and Strudders ran the line out with his usual quiet efficiency.

All in all then a good afternoon’s entertainment and if the result meant nothing at least it beat the hell out of Christmas shopping at The Oracle.

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