London Irish
Twas the night before the night before Christmas
By jimbo800
December 27 2022
I can say this loudly now, but I could never admit to be quietly optimistic in the build up to our festive game. Once the line ups were announced, seeing how strong we were and who sarries were missing, this was a game we could go after. We had a big win in us, and Christmas was the time to deliver against the best team in the country. The media team had already told us we were expecting the biggest crowd of the season, and arriving an hour early, that was clear to see. Plenty fans arrived early and the bars and stands were filling nicely.
The Friday night lights needed a big crowd to really make a proper spectacle and this was the night. Lights went down, Loader was on the big screen delivering the war cry, Irish left sarries waiting on the field before the noise erupted. It’s on!
The opening minutes were quick, Irish wanted to make an impression and that they did. After building phases going towards the tunnel side of the pitch, they went back the other way and the ball ended up in OHCs hands, never in doubt, over he went. Only once I saw the replays did I realise how much work he had to do. He had to beat three defenders, one of whom was Farrell who barely got a hand on him. Seven up after only five minutes.
This game was an arm wrestle, one for the purists. Farrell and Jackson traded penalties before the real drama started. Sarries were playing out of their 22 when Woolstencroft took a crash ball which Coleman met head on. With little time to react, Coleman's shoulder dropped straight into the face of the Sarries hooker. It was a huge hit, knocking the Sarries man out of cold on impact. Carley took little time in issuing the red, the clearest one we’ll see all season. The crowd went quiet, we’ve seen this before, literally with Coleman and Sarries. Kidney quickly acted to bring on Simmons to keep the pressure on the lineout. It was an inspired choice, Simmons was everywhere and controlled the line out. Paddy kicked another couple of penalties to keep the scoreboard ticking over. It was Irish fling through the phases in the Sarries 22 when Carley spots head contact from Earl on Pearson. TMO and Carley confirm Earls tucked the arm and went straight for Pearsons head. This game was bubbling away and it finally boiled over. Irish in the Christmas spirit gifted sarries a score before half time. Irish always seem to struggle in the minutes before and after half time. Sarries win the penalty and kick to the corner, Irish stop the mail but the sarries hooker scrambles over. He can’t control himself and decides to stand over the Irish defender and share his feelings…loudly. To be honest, I actually missed the next bit. Irish awarded penalty on halfway and Paddy splits the posts. Yes, we’re only at half time. I heard somewhere that the first half actually took an hour. During all that, we actually lost Joseph to an ankle injury. With no centre cover on the bench, Jennings became our 12. Leading at half time but work to be done.
All the half time chat was the same, can we really do this? Earl really did us a favour, we’d have struggled to keep Sarries out for an entire game and if we could have picked one Sarries player to go off, it would have been Earl, the form player in the league.
As per usual, we didn’t handle the beginning of the second half very well. Lucio Cinti struggled to deal with a grubber kick from Eliot Daly, Sean Maitland on hand to touch down and bring Sarries right back into it. Irish didn’t crumble and repelled Sarries again and again, Jennings proving to be more than capable of handling the physicality in defence. It was Jennings who actually put in a big hit on Vunipola who protested the legality of it. Replays showed it was a shot to the head but Billy was falling all the time. Down to 13, this was all getting very tense. Just a minute later from the resulting penalty, Simmons is binned for taking down the attacking line out as it was steaming towards the line. This was a strange call, but we got lucky. If it was bad enough for a yellow, why wasn’t it a penalty try? We got off lightly and miraculously repelled Sarries the entire time we were down to 12 men. It was a heroic defensive shift. To be honest, Sarries didn’t stress the line as much as they should have done. Back up to 14 men with ten minutes left on the clock. The game was by no means out of reach, and if there’s a team who can punish you in the closing stages, it’s Sarries. Irish were calm in defence and handled everything Sarries through at them. With Borthwick in the crowd, I think Irish single handily ended Billy Vunipolas England career. I’ve never seen him thrown around as much as he was. Even Jennings put in a few big shots on him. Once Billy loses the collisions, he really offers nothing else.
With five to go, Irish are heading towards the Sarries 22 but get caught in possession and Sarries win the penalty. Farrell kicks to half way, about three minutes to go. There was still time plenty time for Sarries to steal this. This was about as tense as I’ve felt the crowd this season. Irish picked the perfect time to start attacking the Sarries line out again. Chunya goes up and gets his arm across first, the crowd erupts. Englefield ships the ball to Pearson who only has one thing in mind. The composure for such a young guy to believe in running instead of a panicked kick. He has a huge step off his left leaving Farrell for dead, the scrum half clutching at thin air, the space opened up and the noise just exploded. Pearsons pace and footwork took him to the 22 where he had the skill to off load to our new Argentinian hooker who carried up to the line. Quick ball allowed Cunningham South to crash over ignoring the overlap. The crowd went ballistic and the party started!!!! The Christmas music belted out and it turned into a sing a long. We’ve won the game but can we stop Sarries getting anything out of the game? You bet we can, we win the penalty at the break down and Paddy does the rest. Irish beat the odds and finally get the win we’ve searched for. The crowd were euphoric and the singing and chanting went on as everyone dispersed into the streets of West London.
Special mentions, Pearson got a deserved man of the match. Borthwick will definitely cap him after watching that game. He had the sarries forwards in his pocket and he can take it as a compliment that Earl went in for a cheap shot. Loader was absolutely superb, looked like he’s played full back all his life, he ran when there was room to run and kicked when he should have. Cinti, even though he one error for the try, played very well. No ball in attack but he took the tricky balls and stood his ground. For once, OHC was the quietest of all the back three. Jennings did his job well, tackled ferociously (for some reason Jackson kept giving him crash balls which I hope to never see again). Front row held their own, at times got the nudge. Benhard was quieter which is a compliment to everyone else, he didn’t need to be the main man. Simmons is probably our best import for the past five years. He’s just so consistently good, he ruined the sarries line out. Api, if managed well will prove to a shrewd signing as well. I really hope we’ve got Simmons next season.
It wasn’t perfect and we had some very poor moments, but it really didn’t matter. We got the win, the fans got the win we craved. Another loss could have been catastrophic for us, maybe this is a turning point for us.
Happy Christmas you filthy animals!!
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Coleman's red card due to poor tackle technique was deserved, but didn't seem malicious, or deliberate.
The Earl red card wwas a deliberate no arms shoulder, that was always foul play, with no mitigation. Hence the red card. It was a definite cheap shot, but I bet he gets less of a ban than Coleman, despite it being, to my mind, an actually worse offence.
Disciplined and hard working defence won it for us, not least when doen to 12 men.
During that spell Pearson and BJVR were everywhere. BJVR especialy switching from one side of the field to the other and tirelessly filling any gaps in the defensive line.
For most of the game we made it look like we were the unbeaten table-toppers rather than Saracens.
With the way the season is going, any team putting a decent run of wins together will be on for a top four finish.
We need to back that performance up with a decent result at Glos.
