Grrrr

I wasn’t there but I imagine they were something like – OK boys, we have to take them on up front, keep the ball close to the pack and when it does come out put it up in the air, chase everything and put their back three under pressure. The only way they can beat us is if we give Andy Goode too many chances, so NO SILLY PENALTIES!!!!!!!!

He may as well have saved his breath. Because it was the 8 silly penalties which we gave away within Andy Goode’s kicking range which cost us this game. That he missed one was a blessing, which gave us a small chink of light coming to the end of the game. Also, it has to be said, Mr. Pearson’s interpretation at the breakdown had a significant contribution.

Whilst Tigers appeared to be pretty much at full strength, Irish were without several key players. Catt, Flutey, and Bishop in the backs were sorely missed, but the most significant absence was the solitary absentee from the pack, arch lineout thief, Nick Kennedy. With JFK on the pitch, opponents think twice about putting the ball to touch, and it allows Irish to kick the lines with the sure knowledge that we will nick about 25% of their ball at the lineout. On the day, we were very solid on our own throw, and we did steal two or three of theirs, but no where near the quantity we would normally expect, and this negated one of our key advantages.

In a game dominated by penalties, it is pointless to go through a point by point report of the game, save to say it was nip and tuck throughout. Tigers were first on the board straight from the kick off. Horak gathered and the Tigers chased and hit him, the irish pack were all gathered round, and it looked like a safe enough maul turning to ruck, but Mr. Pearson had other ideas and pinged Michael for holding on. This is where mine and Mr Pearson’s interpretations first became at odds. When a Maul turns to a ruck, it is not the same as a tackle situation. In the tackle situation the tackling team. Provided they remain on their feet, have the right to challenge with their hands for the ball on the ground until the referee call “ruck”. When a maul turns to a ruck, they have no such right because no one has the right to handle a ball in a ruck at all. So if the Leicester players were challenging with their hands, they should have been pinged, and if they weren’t then there would have been no need to hold on to the ball. I apologise for going into this kind of detail, but it is important because Mr Pearson pinged us on at least three other occasions for holding on, and all of them were questionable. Anyway, needless to say, the Peerless Goode converted and Tigers were 3 – 0 in front.

Everitt got the next blood, and Goode the next, and midway through the first half the score stood at 3 – 6 to Tigers. The next few moments were the best in the game. First Rowntree submarined Kieran Roche at a lineout and was binned, Irish kicked the penalty to touch and won the lineout. From the resulting Maul, Gussy broke free and rampaged towards the line. The Leicester and ex Henley Tyro Tom Varndell should have stopped him but showed a worrying (For Leicester and if the papers have their way, England) reluctance to tackle front on. Gussy shrugged him off and completed a 40 metre solo try, Barry converted and Irish led 10 – 6.

Pretty much from the restart Irish were again caught for handing on the floor by Horak, who was binned ( Mr. Pearson living up to his reputation for not standing any nonsense) and Goode converted to make it 10 – 9. Then Tigers had their own little bit of magic. Healey started it all with a great run, passed to Lloyd who made a few yards before putting a lovely little kick into the Irish 22. Penney went down on it and Corry, who was at least 5 metres off side, went down on him, the ball squirted out and Vestey was quickest to it, to go over for the try. Goode converted and Tigers had turned a 4 point deficit into a six point lead at 10 – 16.

More penalties were exchanged and the half ended at 16 – 19 to tigers.

The 2nd half was more of the same. Tigers went to 16 – 22, irish came back to 19 -22 19 – 22, then Tigers got two very long range penalties, both for Gussy pulling down Mauls and seemed to have closed out the game at 19 – 28. Then Irish got their one and only bit of luck in the entire game. Tigers were winning a ruck on their 10m line, and Bob went offside then proceeded to Grizzle about the penalty, Mr. Pearson duly marched us back 10 Metres, Goode stepped up to surely put the game beyond us. The kick being at least five metres shorter than 3 of his previous successes looked easy for Andy, but inexplicably he missed.

Next came another key intervention from Mr. Pearson. Irish were threatening the Tigers line right in front of the posts about 10 Metres out. Graham Rowntree was deliberately laying over the Irish ball preventing a release which may well have led to a try. Mr Pearson Pinged him and went for his pocket, realised he had already been binned once, and lost his bottle. He left the card in his pocket and instead gave Martin Corry a 30 second grilling. It’s all very well saying the next one will be in the bin but the fact is, Rowntree had taken his gamble. Save a try and risk reducing your team to 14 men, and the gamble had payed off. I believe this incident sealed the game for Tigers.

Barry kicked the penalty and then another to put Irish within 3 at 25 – 28 with about 6 minutes left. Irish then threw the sink at it. Tigers slowed everything down and tried to kill the clock but Irish were insistent. The final act came when Irish were awarded a penalty about 3 metres in from touch, and about 5 metres inside the tigers half on the right hand side (Barry’s wrong side) with about a minute and a half to go.

3 points ties the game, 5 points wins it neither the kick for goal, nor the kick to the corner is easy, so you are Bob Casey, what do you do? Well Bob asked Barry to go for the goal. Now I don’t blame him for it, but it is my opinion that he made the wrong decision. Score the points and you only get one extra league point. Get a lineout ten metres out when you have dominated lineouts all game, and you have the chance to get 3 extra points. Purely on the risk / benefits, you gotta go for touch. Anyway, the kick was out of Barry’s range and in his effort to get the distance he shanked it and although we had another lash from the dropout we just came up short at 25 – 28 in a game which we should have won.

So what was good and what was bad?

Well, our penalty count was nothing less than scandalous, it is all very well blaming the Ref, but this is a professional game, and you have to figure out what the ref wants, and do it his way. We dominated the lineouts, won most of our own, and nicked some of theirs, but had Nick the ball been playing we could have expected much more, and I believe that he is now our single irreplaceable player. In the first half we dominated the scrums, but in the 2nd Faan seemed to run out of puff at about 55 minutes, from then on Rowntree dished out a severe pounding, and it reflects fantastically on Beefy (Who made White look very ordinary) and Coetzee, who completely mullered Chuter, that we still managed to keep all of our own put ins.
Our back row was awesome, Declan and Gussy were massive, although Gussy was the worst contributor to the penalty count, and the Geezer was simply the best player on the field by a long way although I will not give him MOTM because in my eyes there was another less flashy but more significant performance. Our driving play was good and this was epitomised in the 35 metre rolling maul midway through the first half, and our scrambling defence was good.

You can’t say much about the girls on a day when they were simply there to tackle and catch high balls, except to say that they did both tasks bravely and adequately.

In his game though, and in several recently, our rush defence has not looked good. Lots of dog legs, and yesterday Topsy lost concentration on several occasions and did not come up quickly enough. This is an area in which Bish excels, and I for one cannot wait to get him back in the team.

So. My MOTM goes to Beefy. He completely dominated the best tighthead in England and had a great game around the field. I don’t have the figures but I bet he was close to the top of the tackle count, and he and Coetzee were the main forces in the driving play. Well done Beefy. You ARE London Irish.

Make no mistake though. This was not a bonus point won, it was four points lost. If we do not make the playoffs at the end of the season, this, along with Wuss and Saints must go down as opportunities missed

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