We stopped on route at a service station and had our first encounter with a Saints supporter. “As long as we get the bonus point” I say, “lacking confidence” he replies” I thought you would want 4.” “As long as Mr Geraghty doesn’t come off the bench and affect the result, I’ll take one.” I reply.

Arriving at the ground we wait for the team to arrive. Same joke as last year from the music department at Saints, the coach pulls up the team get off and “Here come the girls” is played over the loud speaker system.

LKR comments that she didn’t see Elvis get off coach, “You must have missed him” we say but when the team is announced no Elvis!! Tom is moved to centre with John Rudd coming onto the wing and Topsy onto the bench (Welcome back) Looks like those who want Peter at Full back and Delon at 13 may have to accept that Toby is going to play the other way in most situations.

We make our way to our seats in the corner of the ground and find a good number of Irish supporters with Bodhrans (will they be at Worcester??) in good voice to greet the team who take to the pitch. It’s a cold day and the match reporter’s notes may suffer!

The team are followed out by Sean “Wavey” Davey who according to one of the editors of this board (Sorry Griff!) in a post the week has “got a lot better…. I rate him these days” we shall see what we think by the end of the match.

Irish start the game (straight down the centre) between the two sides who according to many play the most attractive rugby in the premiership. The chances of 9 -6 final score are debated in the stand and supporters on both sides near us admit they have predicted similar! The first 5 minutes show Irish pressure and some running rugby that made 9-6 look unlikely

7 minutes into the half and Mr Davey gives Saints a penalty as Irish come off-side Myler takes the 3 points to put Saints into an early lead. From the restart (straight down the centre) Irish are given a somewhat fortunate knock on which seemed to go forward off a Saints boot the scrum leads to a line out to Saints in their own 22 and from one of the rucks moving away from the line out   a penalty was awarded for holding which allowed Chris Malone to level for Irish.

Half way through the half and Irish are playing well but seem to be really struggling at line out time but are in the game and possibly slightly on top. Mr Davey is stopping the game regularly for a range of penalties but no cards are produced. David appears to be dropped into touch at one point but cleverly keeps the ball in play and the game continues. Saints come more into the game but Irish pick up 2 more penalties both for Saints players holding on to take the lead out to 3 – 9.

8 minutes to go in the half and Mr Davey gives Bob the most serious looking warning so far and then awards a penalty to Saints. The silence at Saints when kicking is taking place is very impressive but on this occasion the local constabulary have not been informed and the silence is broken by a police car driving past the ground.

With a couple of minutes to go in the half Irish are attacking and the ball is at the back of a maul. The Saints line and Courtney Lawes in particular move up. Mr Davey motions to him and the Irish support hope for a penalty (I thought I saw him signal for one) Chris clearly thinks the same as he goes for the drop goal which he missed. That’s ok we think, there is a penalty coming but no, Mr Davey motions for a 22. Irish regain possession and another drop is attempted which is touched in flight and cleared. The first half ends Irish 9 Saints 6.

The second half starts and Irish are still struggling at the line out which maybe explains why Saints in the first 5 minutes turn down a couple of possible shots at goal and kick to the corner, one was particularly worrying as it was given for a high tackle which I look down to record in the notes after commenting to the Saints support  behind us that they might regret not taking the points. I look up and Saints are pushing towards the line Dowson scores . Sam (a ref you know) questions the feed to the line out (Crooked/ Short/ or both) but I missed it on the day and still haven’t seen any replays (11 – 9 Saints)

Saints are getting a bit on top at this stage Rudd is taken to the ground when clearing a ball right in front of the Irish support with an arm that was wrapped around his neck, Messrs Davey and Maybank  don’t see any problem and play on (still no cards) 14 minutes in and one of the Irish players moves early Mr Davey makes a similar signal to the one given to Lawes in the first half but this time the penalty is awarded which is again kicked to the corner. From the line out Saints continue to attack and as the ball comes across the back line Peter Hewat gambles and cuts out a pass. That’s the attack over we think but people say Peter is slowing down he probably won’t score from our 22 How wrong we were not only did he go the length of the field but with the lines he ran to keep the defence guessing the running distance must have been well over 100 metres. Try scored and converted by Chris (11-16 to Irish.)

From the restart Irish earn another penalty which is again scored 11 – 19 up and 15 minutes remain with Saints needing 2 scores. Unfortunately Irish concede a penalty from the restart and the 2 score lead on this occasion only lasted for a minute.

12 minutes to go and a certain former Irish player comes on to the pitch (Anxiety builds in the stands) is Shane going to have a big impact? Well initially it doesn’t look like it as we control possession and take the ball down the field Malone gets the drop goal and restores the 2 score lead. (14-22)

With 9 minutes to go Saints earn a penalty and Shane steps up, he misses and the Saints support behind us comment “That’s the different between the sides … Irish are kicking their penalties” I say to LKR that could be the title for the match report “Shane the difference between the sides!”

7 minutes left and we still hold a 8 point lead so from an Irish perspective I make the mistake of starting to relax. After all last week against Sarries when we got to 2 scores ahead there was no way they were going to manage to score one try never mind two especially as at that stage the game plan was to kick them 80 metres away and challenge them to come back. Unfortunately for us Saints are a much more useful attacking side and continue to pressure, Chris H is penalised for a High tackle and we fear it could be more but instead Mr Davey points to the posts and Shane scores the conversion.

Oh well I think a bonus point to  Saint and 4 for us is still a great result as the clock ticks to 5 minutes Irish have possession and are taking the ball up towards half way in Chris’s hands, he has Maps outside him and there is space behind them. “Kick for the corner” I say, Chris passes to Maps “OK keep possession then” but Maps goes for the kick. Unfortunately, Maps kick takes a bounce and rolls towards the end of the pitch. From the corner I couldn’t see the if it stopped (Those in a better position than me including the BBC suggest it did but Mr Davey  brings the play back a long, long way (Past the point of the kick?) giving Saints an attacking scrum in our half. The clock continues to run and the time is down to 1.41 when Tom tackles Shane and the ball gets stuck in the ruck.

A scrum is awarded but the clock doesn’t restart. Anyway from our corner It’s OK as Irish seem to have driven Saints off the ball. Mr Davey blows his whistle saying that the scrum had come up and orders a reset scrum with Saints ball. Irish fans, and possibly Toby, will argue that the result of the scrum should have been either Irish scrum or Irish penalty but unfortunately the last feed is given to Saints and this time the clock does restart.

Geraghty passes to Ashton who juggles the ball , “drop it” we hope, but he just manages to gather and crosses the line and is enveloped by several Irish players as they fall to the ground.  1.27 on the clock and Mr Davey awards the try (Having just seen the replay for the first time on Sky the view is not conclusive) there were several  Irish players trying to hold him up and there was no clear grounding from my perspective but also no proof that it wasn’t grounded Mr Davey arrived late and awards the try.

It’s 22-22 and Saints have a conversion to go into the lead but surely there would be a restart. Some of the Irish players tried to encourage Shane to take the kick quickly but Saints are allowed to take all the remaining time before the conversion is scored and Mr Davey points to the tunnel.  Geraghty leads the celebrations and as some said afterwards “You would think Saints had won the title.” We left the ground and spoke to a number of disappointed fans and players who thought that we could and maybe should have won but in close games refereeing decisions will have an effect.

What to the rest of the season? We are still handily positioned with 5 teams clearly ahead of the chasing pack and 4 places in the playoffs we will need to continue to work hard (and keep the points in every game run going?) if we are to avoid having to go to any of the other clubs in the playoffs – the last game of the regular season (Irish v Saints) looms large in the distance.

Personally,  I have still not seen the club win at FG, Welford Road,  Adam’s Park or Vicarage Road so would prefer a home tie, but that said the 0 – 17 at Quins in the semi-final is still one of my favourite Irish experiences and repeating that in the playoffs would be good news.

 Of the two sides we have played over Christmas I would prefer to save Saints for the final as they are a side who play a good brand of rugby but for now lets focus on Worcester next week.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes