By Billy Hamilton
October 16 2002

One feature of the opening round of the Heineken Cup last weekend was the poor showing of the Celtic League sides. Leinster was the only team to record a victory against a team from outside that league. Even then its 6-point victory over Bristol does not seem very convincing

LONDON IRISH v EDINBURGH RUGBY

Madjeski Stadium Sunday 20^th October KO 3 pm

Referee: Antonio Lombardi (Italy)

Edinburgh had a ten-point margin over their Welsh opponents Newport but even they are not convinced that their performance will be good enough to beat us.

Captain Todd Blackadder, has a blunt "must do better" message for his team as they prepare for their trip to Reading. The former All Blacks skipper is adamant there is plenty of room for improvement before they tackle the English Cup winners.

"It was a good way to start, on the right side of the ledger, but it was also a little bit scratchy," he said. "We are going to have to up it a gear against the Irish, we must improve every game. "London Irish are a very good side, just a shade away from being back at their very best and the way they were playing at the end of last season.

"In the English Cup final against Northampton they showed what they are capable of producing — and we will be expecting nothing less than that sort of performance from them on Sunday. "I have seen their game against Toulouse and to play so well over in France was a great effort, they really lifted themselves against one of the favourites to win the Heineken Cup."

Those of us who were fortunate to go to Toulouse take comfort from our performance last Saturday. We produced the type of performance which saw us winning the Cup and knocking Pau out of the Parker Pen Shield.

One worry this week will be our injury list. We went to Toulouse last weekend with only three recognised back row forwards and then lost Paul Gustard to injury. Kevin Burke came on as replacement allowing Ryan Strudwick to slot into the number 8 position. There is hope that Chris Sheasby, who was expected back for the Northampton game, might be fit this weekend. Enquiries to London Irish have met with the response that they will not be making any comment about player availability until the team is announced on Friday morning.

Pool 5

	P	W	D	L	F	A	T	PTS
Toulouse	1	1	0	0	28	23	3	2
Edinburgh Rugby	1	1	0	0	27	17	2	2
London Irish	1	0	0	1	23	28	1	0
Newport	1	0	0	1	17	27	1	0

 

LEADING SCORERS 2002 / 2003

POINTS

22 Paul Grayson (Northampton Saints)

20 Ludovic Mercier (Gloucester)

19 Brendan Laney (Edinburgh)

18 Barry Everitt (London Irish), Felipe Contepomi (Bristol Shoguns)

17 Stephen Jones (Lianelli)

16 Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz Olympique), Brian O~Meara (Leinster Lions)

15 Iestyn Hams (Cardiff)

 

PENALTY GOALS

6 Paul Grayson (Northampton Saints)

5 Iestyn Harris (Cardiff)

4 Brian O^tMeara (Leinster), Gavin Henson (Swansea), Brendan Laney (Edinburgh), Jason Strange (Newport), Barry Everitt (London Irish), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz)

DROP GOALS

2 Barry Everitt (London Irish)

1 Pierre Mignoni (Beziers), Sebastien Viars (Montferrand), Xavier Sadourny (Montferrand)