Allez les bleu!

On an oddly lit, freezing, winter day at the Madejski, with the massive new wind-turbine spinning gently in the breeze behind the stadium, Agen, our biggest rivals in ECC Pool 2 came to play the first leg of our double-header. First impressions were that the French lads were, as expected, huge and they play in one of the most foul kits ever to visit the Reading stadium.

There was a sense of expectation from the surprisingly small crowd, no-one quite knew whether to expect a drubbing or a massive win - expectation settled somewhere in the middle, this was going to be tough.

From the kick-off it was clear both teams were going to play at pace and with frenetic energy. Agen's handling looked great and they seemed keen to use their huge inside centre, M. Ahotaeiloa (no, I have no idea how to pronounce it) to probe the Irish midfield. Irish also looked confident and initial worries about the loss of the new front-row for the old guard were proved unfounded. Beefy (Neal Hatley) and Skuse looked well up for anything, charging around like men possessed with Robbie Russell adding some much appreciated guile to the hooker role. Juan Manuel Leguizamon made a welcome return at 8 and made some lovely breaks early-on, one making the home-crowd smile as he hoisted a high-kick (yes, really) and sped through to catch it a drive on, superb stuff.

Agen had obviously done their homework, their first line out (and many subsequently) was taken very quickly, they obviously didn't want to test themselves very often against our forward unit. It seemed very wise when the Irish forwards, shortly afterwards, managed to disrupt an Agen scrum, steal the ball eventually ending up with a massive maul that the Agen packed failed to stop. Forward-wannabe Paul Franze made a fine touch down from the maul and Riki Flutey duly converted to give the home fans great hope. The play had been all Irish with a flurry of Agen counter-attacks and the try lead was well-deserved.

Having shown their desire to dominate the Agen pack, the low Irish numbers went on to create a second try. Neal Hatley popped up on the wing, intercepting a rare Agen trip into the Irish half and charging forward. The quickly-improvised back-line followed him and collected the ball moving it left to beat the Agen defence ending at a charging Bob Casey who held the ball in contact long enough for a move to the right to form. Riki Flutey gladly grabbed the ball and broke through a gap to score under the posts and make his subsequent conversion easy.

Just over ten minutes had gone all the way Irish had wanted and to be 14-0 up was the perfect start. Agen, relaising they were doing something wrong quickly re-thought their defence and put a stop to the Irish dominance. For a long period we had parity with Agen making breaks through a solid green defensive line and Irish stopping them before steadily pushing the vistors back to their 22. The major cause for concern in the home-support was the nasty habit Riki had picked up of kicking into touch on the full outside his 22.

Agen's new defensive policy afforded them much more time with the ball with which to probe the Irish defence. Slowly the match fortunes were turning with Irish, no longer ruling the roost and Agen forcing themselves into the game. Where they had rarely visited the Irish half earlier now they spent long periods between halfway and the Irish 22 putting major pressure on the home side. Eventually this pressure told, Agen broke into the home red-zone and Irish were forced to give away a penalty close to the try-line. Sensing the change in fortunes, Agen kicked the penalty to take a 5m line-out which, almost inevitably, gave them the platform to crash over for a well-worked try which their 10 J. Miquel, an able replacement for Gelez,converted.

Irish, shaken by the sudden score-change came out of the blocks like they had started the half, quickly pushing the visitors back and putting them under pressure. From a line out the ref had already given a kickable penalty so Riki gave a drop-goal a stab. He hit it beautifully and put Irish in for half-time 17 - 7 ahead.

The second-half started at the same frantic pace as the first. Agen were obviously keen to close the gap and made a number of forays into the Irish half showing a willingness to move the attack-point very quickly spinning the ball wide. The Irish defence held firm though, often forcing the extra pass to a non-existant extra wing nullifying the pressure.

Agen kept up the tactic allowing the Irish to get amongst their backline, Delon Armitage on one occasion collecting the wide pass and running, with no-one having a chance to catch him, a good 60 yards to do his trade-mark swallow-dive to touch down under the posts. Riki made the easy conversion and the home side were now clear of trouble and rampant.

The forwards had obviously got a bit fed-up of the backs taking all the glory and they made a play that had the whole stadium cheering. The pack picked the ball up just inside the Agen half and mauled it pretty quickly down the pitch. Agen eventually pulled it down just short of the try-line but referee Changleng didn't even consider a penalty try, not quite sure why. The visitors had failed to stop a 40m plus drive what made him think that, without resorting to foul-play, they'd have managed the last yard ? Irish took the penalty as a quick tap but failed, initially, to make it stick.

The attack continued though and Irish camped on the Agen line, eventually the forwards relented and allowed the ball to the backline. Flutey popped the ball up to a speeding Rodd Penney and the surging centre made short work of the defender in his path to cross the white-wash for Irish's best try of the match, well worth the bonus-point. Riki missed the conversion but we were cruising 29 - 7 in a match we had dominated pretty much all the way through.

Agen, though, are a good side and they were not going to take a thumping lying down. Possibly aided by a number of personnel changes for the home-side they began to stake their claim and claw their way back into the match. Miquel at 10, particularly made a number of magical breaks to start alarm bells ringing in the Irish camp. Move after move was held back but only just, the visitors propensity for forward passes saving the home side on a number of occasions but it was inevitable that they would string a move together in the end. A fine move out right gave Agen a good overlap, the scrambling defence got to the winger in the end but left the centre clear, when they shifted their attention to him he gave it back to the winger, Mirande who touched down to give his side hope. Miquel kept the pressure on by making good a difficult conversion.

The Agen pack now scenting blood in the water added their not inconsiderable bulk to the proceedings and pummeled the home side's defence. Within very few phases the visitors had breached the Irish half again and the pack were trying to rumble maul after maul over the line. These were held up, but not without cost and a short back move put the opposite wing Lafforgue over for another score which was, again, converted.

29 - 7 had now become 29 - 21 and the home support were getting a familiar feeling. Surely there wasn't enough time left ? Adding to the deja vu experience was the fact that the countdown clock at the stadium is only used for GP matches - we only had the current time, the kick-off time and a bit of maths to leave us wondering how long Mr Changleng would add...

Added to this was the feeling that, with Agen so far behind, the Scotsman had taken to giving all the 50/50 calls to the visiting side, perhaps that was just me and my one eye. The final minutes, though, dragged as we all know they can. Irish held firm, in the most, and kept the visitors away from their 22 but in the final play of the game Agen were awarded a kickable penalty. It was worth a losing bonus point to them and Miquel hadn't put a foot wrong all day, it was almost a pity when he missed it...

So, final score 29 - 21 and Irish well deserved both the victory and the try BP but you came away feeling that, yet again, they had let an opportunity go. 29 - 7 would have been a fantastic first-leg score to defend, 29 - 21 less so. It can be looked upon, though, in a better light. Even if Agen hammer us hollow in France (and that's not very likely if the lads play as they can) and get 5 points with us getting nothing we've still drawn the tie. That is very heartening indeed. We have put ourselves in a very good position to qualify for the next round. The return fixture will be fascinating, I'm really looking forward to it.

As for man of the match it has to be one of the front-row, worst of the fantastic three was Robbie Russell and he had a brilliant game. Skuse and Hatley were almost indistinguishable at times and both had an absolute cracker. Honourable mentions must go to both Penney and Franze, the latter proving that he can definitely cut-it in union. Riki was, as usual, fantastic and "Geezer" Leguizamon also had a fine game. Nobody played badly, though, to be honest.

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