Plucky Parma

It was always going to be a tense, close-run thing. This is Irish remember.

To be fair, it was a resurgent Parma that made it difficult, with every man on the Italian side playing out of his skin for pride and for his club. It was a performance to wonder at and one that caused a great many headaches and frustrations for the visitors in green.

The day really couldn't have been better for conditions, the only problem was the biting cold, it must have been touch-and-go as to whether the fixture could go ahead. It had been witheringly cold the previous night and from accounts of the players the playing surface was like iron the morning of the match. The sun must have helped but I have a feeling the grounds staff would have put in the same Herculean effort as their playing and coaching staff to get to take the league-leaders on. They had already cleared the snow off the surface, I reckon they'd have been out there on hand-and-knees with hairdryers if need be.

With the stadium staff getting used to having an actual crowd in, M. Jean-Pierre Matheu our French referee for the day got the game started. Immediately you could see Overmach's intent. They hared after their opening kick and despite Irish collecting it the home side soon had possession in the Irish 22. The Parma forwards were succeeding in closing down the space that Irish craved and were quick to support their own when they were tackled. It was going to be a real match.

With Irish battling to simply contain the ebullient Italians it wasn't long before the ref had penalised some the visitors for straying offside. It was perfectly kickable and would have been valuable points-on-the-board but Parma showed they were really up for it by kicking it to the corner. Given that Irish have such dominance over "better" sides in the lineout you could be forgiven for taking this as foolish but Parma really were keen to take the game on. Sadly for the home side they were proved to be a little ahead of themselves as the Irish lineout unit duly stole the resulting ball and the danger was, for now, cleared.

Parma didn't take it badly though and were soon rushing back at the Exiles showing ambition to spin the ball wide once the forwards had gained some ground. Irish were still struggling to contain them and in their efforts were adjudged to handle the ball in the ruck. Another kickable penalty showed that Parma, as well as being keen, were also happy to learn from their mistakes and fly-half Mazzariol duly slotted the three points.

It had been a whirlwind start and the play was all from the home-side. Irish re-grouped and kicked downfield showing similar endeavour to their opponents. The chasers did enough to put the catcher off and Parma knocked-on. We'd seen that Irish's lineout was functioning, how was the scrum ? The referee pinged Parma for popping up, the scrum was also fine. Now we saw the Exiles intent. Easily kickable, as many would be through the game, the kick was taken to the corner. It was tries or nothing for us, we just prayed it would be the former...

Irish held their first attacking lineout and started to apply some pressure of their own. Parma, similarly to Irish held firm with some outstanding defence as the visitors spun the ball back and forth trying to break the line. The home side eventually pulled-up for killing the ball, Irish, this time, opted to take a tap and try and get a maul going. M. Matheu called it for obstruction and rightly so it was perhaps, being generous, 5% off being a flying wedge. The plucky Italian side had weathered their first storm.

It wouldn't be long before they'd feel the second, their clearance kick went to touch but Irish stole the lineout and tested the Italian backs' defence with a kick over the top. The full back, Emerick, nearly messed it up but managed to sidestep and clear.

Again Irish took the lineout and built a maul to remind us all of the glorious forwards' tries from the opposite fixture, except Parma stole the ball in the maul and drove the visitors back to the halfway line. Once the drive was stopped Parma tried width and looked good to use an overlap until a flying Rodd Penney put in a huge tackle and Irish chase well earning the penalty 30 yards out for holding-on. Yet again, they ignore the points and kick to the corner.

The lineout was won as expected and the backs then had a go but Parma's defence was still not going to give. Eventually Ross Laidlaw tried to mix it up by kicking over the top and was nearly rewarded but the kick just bounced long as he and a couple of defenders scampered after it.

With both sides knowing that their defence was holding but neither making real in-roads they continued to attempt to make the breakthrough that might tip the balance their way. At times like these it can be the little things that make the difference and it was the home side that got that little lift. They managed to disrupt and Irish lineout (a rare occurrence) and were awarded a penalty for Irish holding an attacker back. It may just be me but I'd have said the Parma player who jumped through the line and intercepted the tap-down might just have been, oh let's say, a yard or two offside and that might have been the reason his shirt was pulled. I'm as one-eyed as any supporter so I'm probably wrong. The fact was, though, that Parma had managed to stop Irish ball at a safe-source and this gave the home side another boost. The tide had turned again and Irish were back playing desperate defence.

The thin-green-line held firm though and a few forays from the men in blue went nowhere, Irish had to commit men, though and the line dif stretch giving Parma a shot at an overlap. The final pass to the winger was, luckily, forward and what could have been disaster for the visitors was averted. Irish seemed woken up by the threat and went to the scrum with intent and, again, Parma were called to task by the referee for a front-row infringement.

Now Irish were back on the attack and kicked a sequence of penalties to the corners, each time collecting the lineout and then trying to work the ball along the back-line only to be stopped by a defender off-side, killing the ball or some other infringment. Eventually the Frenchmen seemed to tell the home side that the next one would be going to the bin and Irish purposefully kicked to the corner.

Parma put too many men in the resulting lineout and Irish set themselves up for a tapped free-kick. It had a familiar ring to it though; the ball was passed to a large group of forwards who began to run at the defence and, SURPRISE, M Matheu duly pinged Irish for their second flying wedge. The "disappointment" of the traveling support was, at this point, obvious.

Parma took their opportunity and used the penalty to get back out of their half and forge another attack which the Exiles held but not without comiting another ball-killing penalty. The Parma fly-half stepped up again to make the score a surprising 6 - 0 to the underdogs.

The restart was run back with Irish trying to hold Parma in their half, Kieron Dawson was judged to go into the side of a ruck and his vocal protestations earned him 10 minutes in the sin-bin. He seemed to have picked up an injury and perhaps that was the reason for his chat, although he came back in the second half briefly he never really got back into the game.

Parma used the penalty for territory again and soon had another kickable penalty but the fly-half finally made a mistake and the kick slid wide.

Now here's something you don't see everyday. From the restart the ref pulled the Parma hooker up for crossing the 22m line before the kick. The big lad, Masetti, was doing his best to get close to Ross and try and charge it down but he'd mistimed things quite poorly. When he did it a second time (!) the referee called it a penalty. A more vindictive man might have thought about a card but I suspect he was as amused as the rest of us.

No matter though, the lineout was tapped back to Paul Hodgson and then through Ross Laidlaw to Rodd Penney who, like a Mini through the Turin rush-hour, cut a fantastic line right through the heart of the Parma defence and was joined, as he was caught toward the left-wing by Topsy Ojo who all but scored but was held just short. Irish were supporting well though and the ruck gave quick ball to a flying Ross Laidlaw who jinked through the, until now, solid defence to touch down for a great try. He even added the conversion to give Irish a lead they would never relinquish right on the whistle for half-time.

Parma 6 - 7 Irish,

Young Ross started the second half in the same form as he'd left the field in the first. From the kick off he made another break through the Parma defence and was unlucky to be bundled into touch rather than slipping the desperate tackle.

Again the teams probes and stretched each other trying to make the killer break.

From an Irish knock-on Parma were hurried by the visiting forwards behind their own scrum, Phil Murphy scooped up from the resulting melee and broke through clear, on his own. Showing a lovely turn of speed for someone so large Phil touched down for our second try and Ross converted it. Sadly it was the last we saw of "Spud" as he hurt himself in the act of scoring, I couldn't see anything untoward, perhaps it was just hitting the hard ground, it was the end of a fine performance by the 8 though. Big Bob Casey took his place.

Parma weren't done though, they were furious to have played so well and still be losing and threw themselves into their task, at times stretching the Irish line almost to breaking, not quite though. With a penalty awarded ten yards out on the left-wing the Italians showed spirit by electing to take the scrum. Sadly for them Kieron Dawson's sin-bin ended just before they could begin, it was amazing to realise that we'd scored our two tries whilst a man down. The scrum failed to make an impact and Parma were forced to go back to probing along the Irish defence with their backs, picking up the occasional penalty as Irish mis-timed a run or got a bit keen on the floor.

It looked like Parma would finally make all the pressure count, they moved the ball to the right and then, getting quick ball form a ruck, changed attack to the left. Delon Armitage looked like he wasn't close enough to make the final tackle and, moreover, like he wasn't even going to try but the winger got a hand to his counterpart and deftly stripped the ball from his grasp. I'm not completely convinced it was deliberate but it did the job.

It heralded another change of tide and Irish began to re-assert their dominance. Paul Gustard made a great run down the middle but got isolated and Michael Horak made a brilliant half-break before off-loading to Shane Geraghty, on for Nils Mordt, whose pass to an in-space Topsy Ojo was forward.

David Paice replaced and excellent Adrian Flavin as Irish continued the pressure. Olivier Magne made his return to the side replacing the still not-right Kieron Dawson and Declan Danaher replaced Kieran Roche, making a big impact but also disagreeing somewhat with the referee's interpretation of the ruck.

From one of these Parma nearly got a move together as they tapped quickly and gained vital yards with Irish not retreating. Thus started their final fling. They began to build the pressure, still trying different things to make the break and taking any penalties given to the corners to make Irish work right to the end. The Parma fly-half showed that he wasn't just a place-kicker by demonstrating a fabulous, deft, inside pass that nearly released his centre to make the score they craved but, again, the Irish line held and the ref went back for a previous Irish infringement at the side of a ruck.

Again, as the clock ticked down, the Parma side gathered themselves for a 5m attacking lineout and, this time, managed to collect it and form a massive maul which they drove over. Their huge number 8, who had been in Irish faces all day credited with the score but they had all scored it and the whole stadium both Parma and Irish supporters alike applauded them.

The rush of blood must have got to S. Mazzariol as he missed the difficult conversion leaving his side still 3 points short with precious little time left. The Irish support, as is traditional, started fearing the worst.

But, of course, the day was never meant to end in Irish defeat and the boys in green had no intention of putting the large traveling contingent through the mill at their party. Irish pushed Parma deep from the restart and pressured the clearance which missed touch. The back-line began running it back from just inside their own half spinning the ball left. Topsy Ojo could see he had no space to work with so chipped it long over the advancing Parma defence. Topsy was held back leaving a charging and elated Declan Danaher to hack the ball forward and then fall on the ball for a marvelous end-of-game try.

Sadly, for Parma their bonus point had gone and Ross, at least, had the good grace not to rub salt into their wounds and missed the conversion although that might have been down to the Parma fan behind the drummers miaowing (I kid you not) quietly during the kick. It was a most odd thing but it certainly didn't seem out of place, tours are funny like that.

So the match ended Parma 11 - 19 Irish. The home side were rightly proud of their endeavours and perhaps could have made it even more uncomfortable for the visitors, it was never really in doubt though. The Irish lads were, to their credit (or at least due to Mr Smith's post-match chat), not satisfied with their performance and rued the missed vital 5th point.

The traveling support stayed clapping, drumming and singing until the last Parma supporter left the stands in a fitting end and testament to the spirit in which the match was staged and played. Parma was a good tour.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon