Great Supporters
London Irish vs Toulouse - Match Report
Great Supporters
By Dermot January 21 2003
For the first time our match report comes from Dermot. A craicing one it is too. Many thanks Dermot, it almost feels like I was there. Perhaps I was?
Great Supporters
For the first time our match report comes from Dermot. A craicing one it is too. Many thanks Dermot, it almost feels like I was there. Perhaps I was?
‘To lose or not to lose?’ that must have been the question troubling Connor and company in the week leading up to this game. On the one hand, for LI, it was a dead rubber, we were out of the Heineken cup already and a mounting injury list with vital Powergen Cup and Zurich premiership matches to come. Should we risk our most vital troops in this match? On the other hand it would not be good for morale to take a 50 point beating in our own backyard and with hospitality sold out and apparently plenty of tickets sold the new commercial director would not want to upset too many potential customers. However the injury count and strict HC squad rules ensured that Connor and co. had to field a strong team-but how committed would the team be in a lost cause and what about Toulouse, already through and guaranteed a home draw? Therefore it was with some trepidation that I arrived at the Madstad with family in tow on what had already been a great weekend -what would we witness a tragedy or a farce?
Within minutes of the kick off we knew Irish were up for it-the tackling was fierce (so fierce that very early on the Doc had another one to one ‘exchange of pleasantries’ with the referee), the forwards were keen to make the hard yards and there was a directness and pace about the backs which has, unfortunately, been missing far too often. It was from such a slick move that Kevin Barrett had the chance to test his opposite man, a delicate chip into the in-goal area looked dangerous and it looked (through my green coloured lenses) like he was impeded as he tried to get to the ball. A period of sustained Irish pressure was eventually rewarded in the fifteenth minute when Mike Worsley crashed over for a try by the posts following a succession of line-outs and ‘pick-and-drives’ on the Toulouse line. Barry converted to give Irish a 7-3 lead following an earlier Toulouse penalty. Irish thoroughly deserved their lead and continued to play fast attacking rugby whilst Toulouse were usually forced to attack from very deep or rely on the prodigious boot of Garbajosa to get them out of their 22. It was during this period of play that we witnessed two events that were set to become recurring themes for the afternoon: O’ Sheasby whilst striding up the middle of the park to all the world looking like he was going to dip his shoulder and plough into the Toulouse backs caught us all by surprise when he delicately chipped over the advancing French backs causing mayhem eventually resulting in a scrum to Irish, not content with this O’Sheasby continued his audition for the fly-half berth with two punts to touch (the first beautifully spiralled 40 yards up the touchline, the second…………...ah well as meatloaf would say ‘Two out of three ain’t bad.’ Not to be outdone by his backrow colleague the skipper also delicately chipped the ball over the advancing white line before the ball bobbled gracefully into touch. Barry, beware Awesome will want to take the conversions next week! The second recurring event were the repeated penalties awarded to Le Stade for off-side around the fringes of rucks and it was from such a penalty in the 27th minute that Jean-Baptiste Elissalde reduced the arrears to 10 points to six. Barry, who really had his kicking boots on, returned the complement in the 31st minute after Irish were fortunate, I thought, to be awarded a penalty for French (or was it Brennan?) handling in the ruck. A rather disjointed period of play followed and during this Toulouse reduced the deficit to just one point with two further penalties.
Perhaps the defining moment of the match came deep in injury time at the end of the first half. The backs were given quick ball and were hitting the line with real pace, Tofty added the extra man allowing Nick Burrows the time to slide-rule a grubber kick into the corner of the in-goal area. O’Sackey burnt up the yards and his opposite man to reach the ball first and from where I was sitting (a good 100 metres away) it looked a definite try, anyway the touch-judge who was 2 metres away thought he saw downward pressure and gave the ‘correct’ decision. Barry’s conversion from way out on the right touchline unfortunately bounced back of the post. So at half-time Irish were deservedly 18-12 and two tries to nil up against one of the European Rugby superpowers. Half-time refreshments were all the sweeter for hearing that Leinster were winning at Bristol and I’m sure the Dubliners were delighted to hear the Exiles half-time score.
The second half started scrappily with not much pattern to the play. Barry extended Irish’s lead to 21-12 on the 50th minute with another penalty. The lead was cut to 6 points in the 59th minute as Elissalde slotted a penalty as Irish were, once again, penalised for being offside. Four minutes later Irish were virtually out of site after a sublime piece of skill from O’Sackey. The forwards set up the platform and the backs moved the ball left, Nick Burrows again broke the gain line, managed to offload to the Doc who was eventually hauled down on the 22. The ball was recycled quickly (with the ref playing advantage to Irish for hands in the ruck), Barry threw a long pass out to the right and may have been horrified to see it heading for Mike Worsley. However the prop caught the ball (!!) and tried the old Maori side-step but was tackled but somehow managed to pop the ball out of the tackle to O’Sackey who from a standing start skinned his opposite number, beat the covering tacklers and launched himself from 10 yards to score in the corner right under the noses of the adoring Eastie-beastie drum band. The conversion was missed leaving Irish comfortably ahead at 29-15. At this point I began to relax and enjoy the battle of the drum bands-great to hear in stereo. Prizes for volume to the French but style and rhythm to the Irish. Maybe the players relaxed as well because soon after I got my piece of Shakesperian farce as, after being penalised, Bob Casey trotted backwards only to collide with Awesome-the result both Irish internationals flat on their backs-fortunately only their pride seemed to be bruised.
With 8 minutes to go Irish got a wake up call as O’Sheasby and Awesome both practising drift defence left a massive hole in the mean green wall for the French fly-half to stroll through and score under the posts as the 2 back-row forwards looked at each other followed by O’Sheasby shrugging his shoulders in a very gallic manner. The conversion meant that Toulouse were within a converted try and memories of Edinburgh were resurfacing. However soon after the re-start a scrum collapsed again and (again) Irish were awarded the penalty, which Barry duly converted to take the score to 32-22. Like all good Shakespeare plays though this match had one final twist as the Toulouse backs finally got it right to give the replacement wing Vincent Clerc enough space to race clear of the cover and score under the posts. Successful conversion again meant that Toulouse were within striking distance ensuring a tense finish. However Irish played the rest of the game deep in the French half thereby limiting the ability of Toulouse to snatch the game. Oh for some of that control in Edinburgh. Final score Irish 32 – Tolouse 29.
So was this ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ or as one of the BBC commentators suggested two sides ‘going through the motions’? I don’t think so for a number of reasons:
1. Irish have maintained their recent good form (Edinburgh blip excepted) and continue their momentum into a huge game next weekend. The scoreline does not do justice to how well they played. I didn’t see the game at Northampton but this was the best I had seen Irish play.
2. Toulouse were not going through the motions, they looked gutted that they had lost and some of their tackling particularly from their open-side was brutal. They started the game with 10 internationals on the pitch and brought more on in the second half.
3. The Irish set-pieces were solid and I think that we pinched more line-out ball than we lost. The back-row were again very good and everywhere but for me the most pleasing thing was seeing the backs hitting the line at pace and regularly breaking through the Toulouse line. The Doc and Nick Burrows gave their opposite numbers a torrid afternoon in both attack and defence and I had Nick Burrows down as man-of the-match before Connor stole my thunder!
Connor was delighted with the victory but like the rest of us can’t help but think of what might have been if we had won matches that we should have done at Newport and at Murrayfield. However we can live with the big-boys and must now strive to qualify for the HC again next season for another European adventure. So a fond au revoir to the good folk of Toulouse who certainly added colour and noise to the occasion and left us with the legacy of our own drum band and siren as we look forward to entertaining Rotherham on Sunday.
Within minutes of the kick off we knew Irish were up for it-the tackling was fierce (so fierce that very early on the Doc had another one to one ‘exchange of pleasantries’ with the referee), the forwards were keen to make the hard yards and there was a directness and pace about the backs which has, unfortunately, been missing far too often. It was from such a slick move that Kevin Barrett had the chance to test his opposite man, a delicate chip into the in-goal area looked dangerous and it looked (through my green coloured lenses) like he was impeded as he tried to get to the ball. A period of sustained Irish pressure was eventually rewarded in the fifteenth minute when Mike Worsley crashed over for a try by the posts following a succession of line-outs and ‘pick-and-drives’ on the Toulouse line. Barry converted to give Irish a 7-3 lead following an earlier Toulouse penalty. Irish thoroughly deserved their lead and continued to play fast attacking rugby whilst Toulouse were usually forced to attack from very deep or rely on the prodigious boot of Garbajosa to get them out of their 22. It was during this period of play that we witnessed two events that were set to become recurring themes for the afternoon: O’ Sheasby whilst striding up the middle of the park to all the world looking like he was going to dip his shoulder and plough into the Toulouse backs caught us all by surprise when he delicately chipped over the advancing French backs causing mayhem eventually resulting in a scrum to Irish, not content with this O’Sheasby continued his audition for the fly-half berth with two punts to touch (the first beautifully spiralled 40 yards up the touchline, the second…………...ah well as meatloaf would say ‘Two out of three ain’t bad.’ Not to be outdone by his backrow colleague the skipper also delicately chipped the ball over the advancing white line before the ball bobbled gracefully into touch. Barry, beware Awesome will want to take the conversions next week! The second recurring event were the repeated penalties awarded to Le Stade for off-side around the fringes of rucks and it was from such a penalty in the 27th minute that Jean-Baptiste Elissalde reduced the arrears to 10 points to six. Barry, who really had his kicking boots on, returned the complement in the 31st minute after Irish were fortunate, I thought, to be awarded a penalty for French (or was it Brennan?) handling in the ruck. A rather disjointed period of play followed and during this Toulouse reduced the deficit to just one point with two further penalties.
Perhaps the defining moment of the match came deep in injury time at the end of the first half. The backs were given quick ball and were hitting the line with real pace, Tofty added the extra man allowing Nick Burrows the time to slide-rule a grubber kick into the corner of the in-goal area. O’Sackey burnt up the yards and his opposite man to reach the ball first and from where I was sitting (a good 100 metres away) it looked a definite try, anyway the touch-judge who was 2 metres away thought he saw downward pressure and gave the ‘correct’ decision. Barry’s conversion from way out on the right touchline unfortunately bounced back of the post. So at half-time Irish were deservedly 18-12 and two tries to nil up against one of the European Rugby superpowers. Half-time refreshments were all the sweeter for hearing that Leinster were winning at Bristol and I’m sure the Dubliners were delighted to hear the Exiles half-time score.
The second half started scrappily with not much pattern to the play. Barry extended Irish’s lead to 21-12 on the 50th minute with another penalty. The lead was cut to 6 points in the 59th minute as Elissalde slotted a penalty as Irish were, once again, penalised for being offside. Four minutes later Irish were virtually out of site after a sublime piece of skill from O’Sackey. The forwards set up the platform and the backs moved the ball left, Nick Burrows again broke the gain line, managed to offload to the Doc who was eventually hauled down on the 22. The ball was recycled quickly (with the ref playing advantage to Irish for hands in the ruck), Barry threw a long pass out to the right and may have been horrified to see it heading for Mike Worsley. However the prop caught the ball (!!) and tried the old Maori side-step but was tackled but somehow managed to pop the ball out of the tackle to O’Sackey who from a standing start skinned his opposite number, beat the covering tacklers and launched himself from 10 yards to score in the corner right under the noses of the adoring Eastie-beastie drum band. The conversion was missed leaving Irish comfortably ahead at 29-15. At this point I began to relax and enjoy the battle of the drum bands-great to hear in stereo. Prizes for volume to the French but style and rhythm to the Irish. Maybe the players relaxed as well because soon after I got my piece of Shakesperian farce as, after being penalised, Bob Casey trotted backwards only to collide with Awesome-the result both Irish internationals flat on their backs-fortunately only their pride seemed to be bruised.
With 8 minutes to go Irish got a wake up call as O’Sheasby and Awesome both practising drift defence left a massive hole in the mean green wall for the French fly-half to stroll through and score under the posts as the 2 back-row forwards looked at each other followed by O’Sheasby shrugging his shoulders in a very gallic manner. The conversion meant that Toulouse were within a converted try and memories of Edinburgh were resurfacing. However soon after the re-start a scrum collapsed again and (again) Irish were awarded the penalty, which Barry duly converted to take the score to 32-22. Like all good Shakespeare plays though this match had one final twist as the Toulouse backs finally got it right to give the replacement wing Vincent Clerc enough space to race clear of the cover and score under the posts. Successful conversion again meant that Toulouse were within striking distance ensuring a tense finish. However Irish played the rest of the game deep in the French half thereby limiting the ability of Toulouse to snatch the game. Oh for some of that control in Edinburgh. Final score Irish 32 – Tolouse 29.
So was this ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ or as one of the BBC commentators suggested two sides ‘going through the motions’? I don’t think so for a number of reasons:
1. Irish have maintained their recent good form (Edinburgh blip excepted) and continue their momentum into a huge game next weekend. The scoreline does not do justice to how well they played. I didn’t see the game at Northampton but this was the best I had seen Irish play.
2. Toulouse were not going through the motions, they looked gutted that they had lost and some of their tackling particularly from their open-side was brutal. They started the game with 10 internationals on the pitch and brought more on in the second half.
3. The Irish set-pieces were solid and I think that we pinched more line-out ball than we lost. The back-row were again very good and everywhere but for me the most pleasing thing was seeing the backs hitting the line at pace and regularly breaking through the Toulouse line. The Doc and Nick Burrows gave their opposite numbers a torrid afternoon in both attack and defence and I had Nick Burrows down as man-of the-match before Connor stole my thunder!
Connor was delighted with the victory but like the rest of us can’t help but think of what might have been if we had won matches that we should have done at Newport and at Murrayfield. However we can live with the big-boys and must now strive to qualify for the HC again next season for another European adventure. So a fond au revoir to the good folk of Toulouse who certainly added colour and noise to the occasion and left us with the legacy of our own drum band and siren as we look forward to entertaining Rotherham on Sunday.
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