By HMRH
September 24 2021

So Worcester Warriors away on the first Saturday the rugby season – surely an opportunity to demonstrate our progression and put last season’s defeat , and Worcester’s only win, behind us. In summary no it wasn’t.

Travelled up from Reading in the autumn sunshine – lunch and a couple of drinks in the town before arriving at Sixways. Had good seats in the East stand just between the halfway line and the 22, good day for rugby and a good Irish team seemingly all ready to go – disappointed not see Ben Loader of Abbey RFC playing but hope he’s back from injury soon.

We know we lost but the manner is worth comment and with some hindsight maybe it wasn’t as bad a result as it felt on the trip back. Marcel van der Merwe had a great game and after the first scrum our first choice 8 had by far the better of Worcester. Scrums have been a weakness of ours recently but seemed better balanced and we garnered a few penalties from the Warriors and shoved them back on a few occasions.

Lineouts were also fruitful for Irish and I believe we had a 100% record on the day as well as snatching at least one from the Warriors. With both Simmonds and Coleman we looked secure with both Creevy and Cornish. Albert carried all day and scored to boot. Matt Rogerson and Ben Donnell kept going throughout the game.

We dominated possession and Worcester had to make double the number of tackles but for all that and despite scoring 4 tries we struggled to break through their defence. Wide seems our best route but in trying to get there quickly Irish forced the passes and too many didn’t stick in the hand. Maybe some rustiness but it was an issue for us all through the game.

Warriors didn’t have to work as hard for their tries – we gave them some soft ones. Credit to both Heinz and Williams though for seeing the chances and making sure Worcester took them. Heinz in particular was full of beans (😉) and looks a good addition. With vd Merwe and Sutherland to come I imagine they’ll add to their tally of 1 win from last year (Covid results not included).

The yellow card has been a talking point on the message boards all week. White stayed high and didn’t attempt to tackle low, Kvesic’s head hit White’s. Taking that as the key point the yellow was surely correct. My initial rection was that Kvesic’s head had hit Whites therefore an accidental clash but the rules put the onus on the tackler. The card just before half time cost Irish as Worcester scored twice in 8 minutes.

Irish tried hard to come back in the second half and a galloping run from Donnell ended in a try for Albert – muted cheers from the travelling Irish fans. A loose ball and another score for Warriors more or less put the game away and despite another score a kick was returned by the Warriors for another score.

A few other thoughts to consider.

Warriors made the most of the new kicking rules – I don’t remember Paddy making one and we seemed to kick to their defending players every time. Our chase didn’t put them under pressure and Warriors won that part of the game.

On another day we could even have won with a little more luck/skill with our handling. New combinations need time. Both White and O’Sullivan looked good. Benhard and Rona looks a skilled pairing but maybe lacks the heft that Hep brings – allows us to mix the styles.

Looking forward to seeing how we respond this weekend against a full on Sale side. Cut down the errors but keep playing with pace and verve – not an easy one to carry off every week.