Review of the Season - part I
By Griff June 6 2008
In my preview to the season I called the opportunties available to London Irish our "Best Chance Ever". With the way the draws had fallen we were faced with slight advantages over previous seasons and real possibilities for success. Now the season has ended we can review the progress and see if those opportunities were taken.
In my preview to the season I called the opportunties available to London Irish our "Best Chance Ever". With the way the draws had fallen we were faced with slight advantages over previous seasons and real possibilities for success. Now the season has ended we can review the progress and see if those opportunities were taken.
With no silverware to show for the year and with the prospect of re-joining the European Challenge Cup, after the heights of the Heineken Cup, it could easily be said that, at least some of the opportunities were missed or even that it was a bit of a failure all-round.
That doesn't tell the whole story of the season, though. In many ways it was our best season ever. The style of rugby we are playing is getting us plaudits and results and the failures were, mostly, only so by very small margins. With many more international call-ups than ever before, especially for our home-grown talent, it seems that Irish are a team going places.
In my preview I highlighted that our draw in the EDF was more sympathetic than the previous year. The problem was that, despite the EDF actually netting more cash than most competitions, nobody really cares about the competition. It was obvious that our opportunities in other trophies would yield more of our team's efforts.
The first game showed how little anyone was bothered. Quins visited the Madstad and a tiny crowd of 6,632 (including a count of all, seemingly absetn ST holders) watched two teams desperately try and give the result to the opposition. We won the battle and Quins took the result 8 - 10. On The Craic we gave the MotM award for this and the subsequent 55 - 16 loss at Ospreys to "Nobody" and never was an award more justified.
It was apparent that the coaching staff agreed with the majority of the support that there were better opportunities elsewhere and the Anglo/Welsh could manage without us for another year. Worcester's visit to the Madstad showed them to be the true "winners" of the Anglo/Welsh win-ducking competition as their young side got an absolute pasting by an Irish team that was clearing the bugs out of its system ahead of our important HC clash wih USAP the following week.
What hasn't already been said about this year's HC campaign? It was truly incredible. I highlighted the fact that we had about the easiest draw of anybody in the competition, we had the dream Italian side and had, finally, avoided Toulouse in the pool stages. I expected us to qualify for the final 8 for the first time in the club's history. I didn't expect anything else but Brian, Toby and the lads had different ideas.
Getting past the pool stages was still a big ask and to qualify in second place with the highest number of tries scored in the competition was a fabulous endictment of the expansive game Irish brought to the competition. With yet another HC grudge developing when USAP decided that the referee had lost them their away game and then one of their senior players attacked one of our stalwarts in the return fixture, it was almost inevitable that we'd be placed against them for the quarter final.
It was, in the end, great to be able to clear the air against a fine USAP side. We got to show them that our first meeting at the Madejski was a fair result and, in one of the most comprehensive jobs I've ever witnessed LI achieve, we took the spoils and got a chance to take on our, now traditional, HC enemy Toulouse at Twickenham.
In a way the fact that none of us expected to get that far took a lot of the disappointment of losing the semi away. It was a great game of rugby and, I think a much overlooked fact is, we could easily have come away with a victory. We held the Euro giants for long periods of the game and scored a couple of stunning tries ut, in the end, the French team's class showed and we bid goodbye to the European top-table for a while and missed-out on the chance to have a really good sing of The Fields with the Munstermen.
In part II.... the GP Review.
That doesn't tell the whole story of the season, though. In many ways it was our best season ever. The style of rugby we are playing is getting us plaudits and results and the failures were, mostly, only so by very small margins. With many more international call-ups than ever before, especially for our home-grown talent, it seems that Irish are a team going places.
The EDF Anglo/Welsh Cup
In my preview I highlighted that our draw in the EDF was more sympathetic than the previous year. The problem was that, despite the EDF actually netting more cash than most competitions, nobody really cares about the competition. It was obvious that our opportunities in other trophies would yield more of our team's efforts.
The first game showed how little anyone was bothered. Quins visited the Madstad and a tiny crowd of 6,632 (including a count of all, seemingly absetn ST holders) watched two teams desperately try and give the result to the opposition. We won the battle and Quins took the result 8 - 10. On The Craic we gave the MotM award for this and the subsequent 55 - 16 loss at Ospreys to "Nobody" and never was an award more justified.
It was apparent that the coaching staff agreed with the majority of the support that there were better opportunities elsewhere and the Anglo/Welsh could manage without us for another year. Worcester's visit to the Madstad showed them to be the true "winners" of the Anglo/Welsh win-ducking competition as their young side got an absolute pasting by an Irish team that was clearing the bugs out of its system ahead of our important HC clash wih USAP the following week.
Heineken Cup
What hasn't already been said about this year's HC campaign? It was truly incredible. I highlighted the fact that we had about the easiest draw of anybody in the competition, we had the dream Italian side and had, finally, avoided Toulouse in the pool stages. I expected us to qualify for the final 8 for the first time in the club's history. I didn't expect anything else but Brian, Toby and the lads had different ideas.
Getting past the pool stages was still a big ask and to qualify in second place with the highest number of tries scored in the competition was a fabulous endictment of the expansive game Irish brought to the competition. With yet another HC grudge developing when USAP decided that the referee had lost them their away game and then one of their senior players attacked one of our stalwarts in the return fixture, it was almost inevitable that we'd be placed against them for the quarter final.
It was, in the end, great to be able to clear the air against a fine USAP side. We got to show them that our first meeting at the Madejski was a fair result and, in one of the most comprehensive jobs I've ever witnessed LI achieve, we took the spoils and got a chance to take on our, now traditional, HC enemy Toulouse at Twickenham.
In a way the fact that none of us expected to get that far took a lot of the disappointment of losing the semi away. It was a great game of rugby and, I think a much overlooked fact is, we could easily have come away with a victory. We held the Euro giants for long periods of the game and scored a couple of stunning tries ut, in the end, the French team's class showed and we bid goodbye to the European top-table for a while and missed-out on the chance to have a really good sing of The Fields with the Munstermen.
In part II.... the GP Review.
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