London Irish 30 Bourgoin 32
By Billy Hamilton April 13 2009
On paper it looked all so easy. An English team, still in with a chance of winning the Premiership, containing 13 internationals, against a French side which had only just beaten off the risk of relegation from the Top 14. But how differently things were to turn out on the evening. All the usual clichés did not help the Exiles – “French sides don’t travel well”, “home advantage” etc.
On paper it looked all so easy. An English team, still in with a chance of winning the Premiership, containing 13 internationals, against a French side which had only just beaten off the risk of relegation from the Top 14. But how differently things were to turn out on the evening. All the usual clichés did not help the Exiles – “French sides don’t travel well”, “home advantage” etc.
It was a different looking Irish side but one wonders if the selection was the correct one. Once it proved to be questionable why were the mistakes not corrected by substitution? Peter Hewat was ineffective at 10 and Charlie Gower seemed out of his depth at outside centre.
From the kick off Irish were on the defensive and mistakes took them further back towards their own line. A conceded penalty was converted by French scrum half Morgan Parra and we were 3 points down within 5 minutes. The mistake-ridden evening was typified when Hewat’s kick off didn’t even travel 10 metres.
However we were to intercept following the scrum and eventually were awarded a penalty 40m from the French line and Delon Armitage slotted the kick over to bring the scores level after 10 minutes. Five minutes later he was to score his second to give the Exiles a deserved lead. Parra was to miss a 47m penalty attempt.
Irish lifted their play and a 30 metre run and chip ahead by Peter Richards was fielded by the defence and the kick out took the play back into the Exiles half. A bad
Kick from Delon saw his team mates caught offside. Bourgoin went for touch but thankfully we were able to steal the lineout ball and relieve the tension. Howver this relief was shortlived and a drop goal by Benjamin Boyet brought the sides level again
Armitage and Boyet were to score another penalty apiece before Delon added another with the last kick off the half to send his side into the dressing room with a 12-9 lead. So the visitors, whom the bookies had as likely to suffer a 20 point deficit, would have gone into the interval feeling very confident of causing an upset.
They certainly came out again with all guns blazing. Mickael Forest ran through the home defence to score the first try with only 40 seconds having elapsed on the game clock. Parra’s conversion was successful and they were 16-12 ahead.
Irish lifted their game once again but the tackling of the French side was more intense and any good moves were stifled early. Topsy Ojo opened up the defence with a run up the left wing. He was tackled 10m out but the ball was recycled and eventually it was Seilala Mapusua who got over the line. Delon’s conversion took the score to 19-16. Parra equalised with another penalty and put his side ahead again following a dubious high tackle decision which saw Mapasua sent to the sin bin.
Irish were awarded a penalty 33m out but when the French captain insisted in arguing with the referee the penalty was taken 10 metres nearer the line. Delon converted to bring the score to 22-22.
Bourgoin were still determined to cause an upset and a second drop goal by Boyet restored their lead. A golden rule of rugby is that one should not try to play fancy rugby within one’s own 22 metre area. This was to be the undoing of Irish when a long Mapasua pass was intercepted and Matthieu Nicolas had an easy stroll to score under the posts. Parra added the conversion to bring his side’s score to 32-25 and to set up a tense finishing period.
Irish needed two scores to force the game into extra time. Could they do it? When the chips were down they played their best rugby of the game. A drop goal by Nick Kennedy brought the deficit down to 7 points and the resumption kick was taken as the 80 minutes flashed up on the game clock. What were needed now were nerves of steel, discipline and possession. All were evident and eventually rewarded when Steffon Armitage went over in the corner for the try but we had to wait for the TM to to confirm it. We then had a tense wait as Delon took the difficult conversion but it went wide. The referee’s whistle blew and it was the French players, officials and supporters who had the smiles on their faces.
The post mortem had a lot of ifs – “What if the selected team had been different”, “What if Maps had not thrown that intercepted pass” and perhaps “What if Billy Hamilton had stayed in Donaghadee”?
Yes my first home game since the last game of the 2001/2 season did not bring any luck. It was nice to see all my friends again. Special thanks to Ken Emerson who gave me a lift to Reading and even arranged my ticket. I hope it will not be so long before I see you all again. Twickenham in May perhaps but on that showing the next two games are not likely to be the walkovers we may have thought.
From the kick off Irish were on the defensive and mistakes took them further back towards their own line. A conceded penalty was converted by French scrum half Morgan Parra and we were 3 points down within 5 minutes. The mistake-ridden evening was typified when Hewat’s kick off didn’t even travel 10 metres.
However we were to intercept following the scrum and eventually were awarded a penalty 40m from the French line and Delon Armitage slotted the kick over to bring the scores level after 10 minutes. Five minutes later he was to score his second to give the Exiles a deserved lead. Parra was to miss a 47m penalty attempt.
Irish lifted their play and a 30 metre run and chip ahead by Peter Richards was fielded by the defence and the kick out took the play back into the Exiles half. A bad
Kick from Delon saw his team mates caught offside. Bourgoin went for touch but thankfully we were able to steal the lineout ball and relieve the tension. Howver this relief was shortlived and a drop goal by Benjamin Boyet brought the sides level again
Armitage and Boyet were to score another penalty apiece before Delon added another with the last kick off the half to send his side into the dressing room with a 12-9 lead. So the visitors, whom the bookies had as likely to suffer a 20 point deficit, would have gone into the interval feeling very confident of causing an upset.
They certainly came out again with all guns blazing. Mickael Forest ran through the home defence to score the first try with only 40 seconds having elapsed on the game clock. Parra’s conversion was successful and they were 16-12 ahead.
Irish lifted their game once again but the tackling of the French side was more intense and any good moves were stifled early. Topsy Ojo opened up the defence with a run up the left wing. He was tackled 10m out but the ball was recycled and eventually it was Seilala Mapusua who got over the line. Delon’s conversion took the score to 19-16. Parra equalised with another penalty and put his side ahead again following a dubious high tackle decision which saw Mapasua sent to the sin bin.
Irish were awarded a penalty 33m out but when the French captain insisted in arguing with the referee the penalty was taken 10 metres nearer the line. Delon converted to bring the score to 22-22.
Bourgoin were still determined to cause an upset and a second drop goal by Boyet restored their lead. A golden rule of rugby is that one should not try to play fancy rugby within one’s own 22 metre area. This was to be the undoing of Irish when a long Mapasua pass was intercepted and Matthieu Nicolas had an easy stroll to score under the posts. Parra added the conversion to bring his side’s score to 32-25 and to set up a tense finishing period.
Irish needed two scores to force the game into extra time. Could they do it? When the chips were down they played their best rugby of the game. A drop goal by Nick Kennedy brought the deficit down to 7 points and the resumption kick was taken as the 80 minutes flashed up on the game clock. What were needed now were nerves of steel, discipline and possession. All were evident and eventually rewarded when Steffon Armitage went over in the corner for the try but we had to wait for the TM to to confirm it. We then had a tense wait as Delon took the difficult conversion but it went wide. The referee’s whistle blew and it was the French players, officials and supporters who had the smiles on their faces.
The post mortem had a lot of ifs – “What if the selected team had been different”, “What if Maps had not thrown that intercepted pass” and perhaps “What if Billy Hamilton had stayed in Donaghadee”?
Yes my first home game since the last game of the 2001/2 season did not bring any luck. It was nice to see all my friends again. Special thanks to Ken Emerson who gave me a lift to Reading and even arranged my ticket. I hope it will not be so long before I see you all again. Twickenham in May perhaps but on that showing the next two games are not likely to be the walkovers we may have thought.
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StumbleuponLondon Irish 30 Bourgoin 32
Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 13/04/2009 11:07
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