By Neale Harvey - Rugby Times
December 22 2002

Champagne Craic planned for Newcastle, this Sunday 22nd December. Neale Harvey of the Rugby Times interviews two "usual suspects" from the Eastie Beasties.

Pub Talk - London Irish

CHAMPAGNE CRAIC PLANNED FOR NEWCASTLE, By Neale Harvey

It has been a difficult season for London Irish so far, but a resounding Heineken win over Newport last Sunday gave hope for better things to come. Paul O'Sullivan, 32, from Bedfont, and Joe Varga, 43, from Staines, offer their insight into all things green.

RT: How do you assess Irish's season so far?

PO: Premiership-wise, it's been pretty poor. The backs haven't been that good, but today's performance against Newport was 100 percent better than last week's, which was pathetic. We have to improve 150 percent on what we've been doing in the Premiership though, because otherwise we're going down.

JV: I think alot of people sussed us out. We've been close in a lot of games but the backs haven't been firing at all.

RT: Expectations were high after you won the Powergen Cup last season. where has it gone wrong?

PO: Our forwards aren't too bad but there's no control over the back line. There's no disciplineand we've just not fired. We need to turn it around big time.

JV: We don't seem to get the ball away quickly enough from the base of the scrum, it's breaking down somewhere between 9 and 10. As a result, the backs - and we've got some good runners - are just not getting the ball fast enough. All the time we're playing behind the gain line and then bringing in the big second rows and back rows in the centres. It's turgid stuff really.

RT: Pieter Rossouw, the South African wing, was supposed to have been the great hope for this season. Now he is being released. What went wrong?

PO: I don't know what it was but with injuries, or whatever, he just wasn't performing. He was great in Super 12s but over here he just wasn't firing.

JV: He's a great finisher but he came to the worng club. I've seen him play in Cape Town and thought he was brilliant, but he really didn't fit in at all here. He took a bit of stick from supporters but, to be fair, our other wingers, Sackey and Bishop, are scrapper. They have to be because we don't work the ball that well.

RT: Are you happy with the news that Conor O'Shea is to take over as chief executive from Richard Sanderson?

PO: It's absolutely fantastic and the best move. Conor's got the rugby brains and the business brains as well. He's loaded with qualifications. Sanderson's done a damn good job in his two years, but now we've got a rugby man with business savvy.

JV: It's brilliant, absolutely brilliant. The guys is a real figurehead at the club and hopefully, after Christmas things will turn around.

RT: You start your defence of the Powergen Cup at Newcastle in Sunday. What are your chances this time?

PO: We've got a champagne-fuelled train trip planned, it's Powergen Cup defence time, and we're going to go up there and do it. We've shown what we can do against Newport, so if we take that form up to Newcastle we'll win. I'm very confident.

JV: It could be the bright spark in our season. It's a long way up to Newcastle on a Sunday, but we'll have lots of fans up there and will make lots of noise. It will be very green and the 'Eastiebeasties' will be out in force.

RT: Finally, where do you stand on the relegation issue?

PO: What relegation issue? We aren't going down, it's between Newcastle and Bath. One of them should definitely go down, though. There's alot of speculation about ring-fencing the Premiership, but one should go down and one should come up. But let's make it clear instead of having to speculate throughout the season. Just do it.

JV: One should go down, but Division One needs to be a more viable proposition. If you're sitting at home on a Saturday afternoon thinking, 'What am I going to do?', I wouldn't go down the road to watch Division One rugby. They have to make it more appealing instead on being viewed as a plummet into nowhere. There should be promotion and relegation, though.

Article very kindly supplied by Mrs H. All acknowledgements and copyright to the Rugby Times