Winning Ugly
By Big-Al October 3 2009
Sale Sharks v London Irish, Friday 2nd October 2009
Off to Sale, and the first away coach trip of the season, which is good as it allows me to write a lot about the journey and keep the bits about the match fairly short (thus not exposing my lack of knowledge).
Sale Sharks v London Irish, Friday 2nd October 2009
Off to Sale, and the first away coach trip of the season, which is good as it allows me to write a lot about the journey and keep the bits about the match fairly short (thus not exposing my lack of knowledge).
The Journey:
There were not too many of us on the coach, but this did not prevent us from having a very enjoyable journey. Although as we started off heading west on the M4 and than followed the normal route towards Gloucester and Worcester we did wonder if we were taking the best route - was it going to be a mystery tour of West Country grounds, and does the rule about no drinking on the coach within 10 miles of the ground refer to the ground we are going to only or does it apply to any ground we pass on route. But as we arrived in very good time - it shows you need to have faith in your drivers. With good company, good conversation, a couple of bottles of bucks fizz, a bottle of wine and various nibbles and the journey passed in no time at all.
I have posted elsewhere about how good the coach was, but I think it is worth mentioning again. The players do appreciate a good noisy and visible support at away matches, so let’s fill the coaches and increase our numbers around the country this season (Big Bob often mentions that it is good to see us and thanks us for coming).
The Match:
On to the match - we all know there are no easy matches in the GP, and Sale away on the Friday night in the wind and rain is no exception. As I was in the stand along the side which is covered, I did not have a feel for how bad the conditions actually were, but I'm sure some of the braves souls sat in the uncovered stand behind the posts will fill us in on that.
I should point out that as well as taking notes for the match report, I also had to take a few photos, spend some time banging the tambourine and also had to drink the odd glass of wine - so please forgive me if I missed anything important as a result - in addition my handwriting is terrible at the best of time, so plenty of reasons why this report may differ from what actually happened.
Sale start the first half - Irish are playing towards the brave souls in the uncovered stand.
Not a lot to report from the opening exchanges, if anything Sale had more of the ball, but we defended well and did not look to be in any danger. Considering the conditions, the kicking game was going to be rather important and there would also be the possibility of the slippery ball escaping someone's clutches. Our first scoring opportunity came after 13 minutes from such an occurrence, Sale misfielded a long clearance setting up an Irish scrum about 25m out - this led to an attempted drop goal from Peter Hewat, but he didn't get the cleanest contact and it went wide.
A few minutes later Sale are pinged for an offence in the maul, but Peter's penalty attempt is wide.
A question that came to mind at this time was - why is Peter kicking and not Chris Malone? (answers on a postcard...)
So we are half way through the first half, Irish are on top, but no points so far.
After 24 minutes another penalty for Irish, Peter is on target and Irish lead 3-0.
However our lead did not last for long, about 5 minutes later Sale managed to put us under pressure and drove over for a try, Eifion Roberts was the scorer, but the conversion was missed, so Sale are leading by 5-3 after about 30 minutes.
Despite this set back, Irish continued to dominate, but another penalty form Peter was off target. Next came the move of the match, a good break by Elvis and a pass out to Sailosi who went round a couple of Sale players to score in the corner. Peter conversion attempt hit the post, so 8-5 to Irish after 37 minutes. And still time for Peter to convert a penalty just before the break, so the half time score is Sale 5 - Irish 11.
Half time thoughts - certainly not the conditions for our normal game, but we are still on top, but could and should have been further ahead. Time for a nice drop of mulled wine.
Irish start the second half.
On 45 minutes Adam goes down with what looks like a bad injury and has to be stretchered off. Following the injury it takes a while to get the atmosphere back - so not so many notes for the second half as I had to do more work with the tambourine, but that said, not that much happened.
A Sale penalty on 46 minutes reduced our lead to 11-8. And neither side really looked like troubling the scoreboard after this, there was a lot of kicking of varying quality from both sides - and with a narrow lead there is always the worry that a mistake, a moment of brilliance or an unusual interpretation of the laws by the referee could change the result.
The last incident of note came with about 4 minutes left, the incident was over the far side of the pitch so I cannot give a view on what happened, but the result was a red card for Peter Richards.
The last play and an Irish scrum inside our 22, Sale put pressure on our scrum but the ball dribbles into touch to end the game.
It wasn't pretty, but we won ugly and as we move into the winter months it is important that we can continue to dominate and win matches when the conditions are not suitable for plan A.
The Stats:
London Irish: 15. Peter Hewat, 14. Adam Thompstone (Peter Richards, 45 - red card, 76), 13. Elvis Seveali’i, 12. Seilala Mapusua, 11. Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10. Chris Malone (Ryan Lamb, 70), 9. Paul Hodgson, 1. Dan Murphy (Clarke Dermody, 55), 2. Danie Coetzee (David Paice, 45), 3. Paulica Ion (Faan Rautenbach, 45) , 4. Nick Kennedy, 5. Big Bob Casey (Andy Perry, 72), 6. Richard Thorpe (Declan Danaher, 55), 7. Steffon Armitage, 8. Chris Hala’Ufia.
Sale Sharks: 15. Marika Vakacegu, 14. Mark Cueto, 13. Matthew Tait, 12. Andy Tuilagi, 11. Ben Cohen (John Kennedy, 70), 10. Nick MacLeod , 9. Richard Wigglesworth, 1. Andrew Sheridan, 2. Mahonri Schwalger (Mark Jones, 29), 3. Eifion Roberts, 4. Brent Cockbain (David Tait, 50), 5. Dean Schofield, 6. James Gaskell, 7. Dave Seymour, 8. Sisa Koyamibole (Neil Briggs, 55).
Scoring (Sale Sharks first): Hewat - Penalty (24 mins) 0-3; Roberts - Try (30 mins) 5-3; Tagicakibau - Try (37 mins) 5-8; Hewat - Penalty (39 mins) 5 -11; MacLeod - Penalty (46 mins) 8 -11.
A few closing thoughts:
This is the first time I have written a match report on an LI victory.
In 5 premiership games so far this season we have not managed to keep 15 players on the pitch for the whole 80 minutes.
The news we had about Adam after the match did not sound good and posts on here have confirmed how serious his injury is. I'm sure I speak for everyone in wishing Adam a speedy recovery.
There were not too many of us on the coach, but this did not prevent us from having a very enjoyable journey. Although as we started off heading west on the M4 and than followed the normal route towards Gloucester and Worcester we did wonder if we were taking the best route - was it going to be a mystery tour of West Country grounds, and does the rule about no drinking on the coach within 10 miles of the ground refer to the ground we are going to only or does it apply to any ground we pass on route. But as we arrived in very good time - it shows you need to have faith in your drivers. With good company, good conversation, a couple of bottles of bucks fizz, a bottle of wine and various nibbles and the journey passed in no time at all.
I have posted elsewhere about how good the coach was, but I think it is worth mentioning again. The players do appreciate a good noisy and visible support at away matches, so let’s fill the coaches and increase our numbers around the country this season (Big Bob often mentions that it is good to see us and thanks us for coming).
The Match:
On to the match - we all know there are no easy matches in the GP, and Sale away on the Friday night in the wind and rain is no exception. As I was in the stand along the side which is covered, I did not have a feel for how bad the conditions actually were, but I'm sure some of the braves souls sat in the uncovered stand behind the posts will fill us in on that.
I should point out that as well as taking notes for the match report, I also had to take a few photos, spend some time banging the tambourine and also had to drink the odd glass of wine - so please forgive me if I missed anything important as a result - in addition my handwriting is terrible at the best of time, so plenty of reasons why this report may differ from what actually happened.
Sale start the first half - Irish are playing towards the brave souls in the uncovered stand.
Not a lot to report from the opening exchanges, if anything Sale had more of the ball, but we defended well and did not look to be in any danger. Considering the conditions, the kicking game was going to be rather important and there would also be the possibility of the slippery ball escaping someone's clutches. Our first scoring opportunity came after 13 minutes from such an occurrence, Sale misfielded a long clearance setting up an Irish scrum about 25m out - this led to an attempted drop goal from Peter Hewat, but he didn't get the cleanest contact and it went wide.
A few minutes later Sale are pinged for an offence in the maul, but Peter's penalty attempt is wide.
A question that came to mind at this time was - why is Peter kicking and not Chris Malone? (answers on a postcard...)
So we are half way through the first half, Irish are on top, but no points so far.
After 24 minutes another penalty for Irish, Peter is on target and Irish lead 3-0.
However our lead did not last for long, about 5 minutes later Sale managed to put us under pressure and drove over for a try, Eifion Roberts was the scorer, but the conversion was missed, so Sale are leading by 5-3 after about 30 minutes.
Despite this set back, Irish continued to dominate, but another penalty form Peter was off target. Next came the move of the match, a good break by Elvis and a pass out to Sailosi who went round a couple of Sale players to score in the corner. Peter conversion attempt hit the post, so 8-5 to Irish after 37 minutes. And still time for Peter to convert a penalty just before the break, so the half time score is Sale 5 - Irish 11.
Half time thoughts - certainly not the conditions for our normal game, but we are still on top, but could and should have been further ahead. Time for a nice drop of mulled wine.
Irish start the second half.
On 45 minutes Adam goes down with what looks like a bad injury and has to be stretchered off. Following the injury it takes a while to get the atmosphere back - so not so many notes for the second half as I had to do more work with the tambourine, but that said, not that much happened.
A Sale penalty on 46 minutes reduced our lead to 11-8. And neither side really looked like troubling the scoreboard after this, there was a lot of kicking of varying quality from both sides - and with a narrow lead there is always the worry that a mistake, a moment of brilliance or an unusual interpretation of the laws by the referee could change the result.
The last incident of note came with about 4 minutes left, the incident was over the far side of the pitch so I cannot give a view on what happened, but the result was a red card for Peter Richards.
The last play and an Irish scrum inside our 22, Sale put pressure on our scrum but the ball dribbles into touch to end the game.
It wasn't pretty, but we won ugly and as we move into the winter months it is important that we can continue to dominate and win matches when the conditions are not suitable for plan A.
The Stats:
London Irish: 15. Peter Hewat, 14. Adam Thompstone (Peter Richards, 45 - red card, 76), 13. Elvis Seveali’i, 12. Seilala Mapusua, 11. Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10. Chris Malone (Ryan Lamb, 70), 9. Paul Hodgson, 1. Dan Murphy (Clarke Dermody, 55), 2. Danie Coetzee (David Paice, 45), 3. Paulica Ion (Faan Rautenbach, 45) , 4. Nick Kennedy, 5. Big Bob Casey (Andy Perry, 72), 6. Richard Thorpe (Declan Danaher, 55), 7. Steffon Armitage, 8. Chris Hala’Ufia.
Sale Sharks: 15. Marika Vakacegu, 14. Mark Cueto, 13. Matthew Tait, 12. Andy Tuilagi, 11. Ben Cohen (John Kennedy, 70), 10. Nick MacLeod , 9. Richard Wigglesworth, 1. Andrew Sheridan, 2. Mahonri Schwalger (Mark Jones, 29), 3. Eifion Roberts, 4. Brent Cockbain (David Tait, 50), 5. Dean Schofield, 6. James Gaskell, 7. Dave Seymour, 8. Sisa Koyamibole (Neil Briggs, 55).
Scoring (Sale Sharks first): Hewat - Penalty (24 mins) 0-3; Roberts - Try (30 mins) 5-3; Tagicakibau - Try (37 mins) 5-8; Hewat - Penalty (39 mins) 5 -11; MacLeod - Penalty (46 mins) 8 -11.
A few closing thoughts:
This is the first time I have written a match report on an LI victory.
In 5 premiership games so far this season we have not managed to keep 15 players on the pitch for the whole 80 minutes.
The news we had about Adam after the match did not sound good and posts on here have confirmed how serious his injury is. I'm sure I speak for everyone in wishing Adam a speedy recovery.
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Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 03/10/2009 21:10
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Re: Winning Ugly
Posted by: AMS (IP Logged)
Date: 03/10/2009 21:30
Cheers Al
If I didn't have a small boy/work last night to consider, I'd have been keen to make it to Sale for a match. Thanks for telling us how it was - and for letting the team win despite your writing the match report!
If I didn't have a small boy/work last night to consider, I'd have been keen to make it to Sale for a match. Thanks for telling us how it was - and for letting the team win despite your writing the match report!
Re: Winning Ugly
Posted by: antoinog (IP Logged)
Date: 03/10/2009 22:36
Thanks for the write-p Al - wasn't able to make it but listened to the first half on the radio. You got the names of the players from BOTH sides correct so you're one up on the radio commentators.
And congrats on your first victory as scribe - and I trust it is the first of many!!
And congrats on your first victory as scribe - and I trust it is the first of many!!
Re: Winning Ugly
Posted by: Props are not stupid (IP Logged)
Date: 04/10/2009 11:12
Well done for your first match report victory and for your multi-tasking skills! I listened online and I had to guess at times what was going on.
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