By GTD
October 18 2007

'A Question of Responsibility' wrote Paddy Lennon last week after an abject display at our rivals London Wasps. A scathing official site match report drew various opinions. Anything from “it’s about time someone said it” to “that’ll do the club no good”. Whatever your viewpoint one thing is for sure : London Irish need to start performing and getting some points in the table, and fast.

Gloucester have been bolstered this week by the arrival of Jeremy Paul from Australia. We also have had a new arrival this week as Peter Hewat arrived from the same shores at Sunbury on Tuesday. Whether either of them play any part this weekend is still to be seen

 

I did my usual stat trawl when I started to write this preview and when the only stat you can come up with that is favourable versus your opposition is the Losing Try Bonus Points then you know you’re in for a testing time. Dean Ryan came out after their 31-12 beating of Sale last week fuming about his teams first half performance saying it was the “poorest performance so far”. Some contrast to our situation.

 

It really seems to be the ultimate mismatch at the moment. They’ve run in 21 tries this term so far to our paltry 8. They’re on an unbeaten 22 points and clear at the top of the Guinness Premiership by 4 points, to our 6 points languishing in the bottom 3. Now whilst I understand there really is no let up in this league with quality teams knocking on your stadium door week in week out I’m guessing that most of you would’ve had Gloucester at the bottom of the wish list to be visiting this at this time.

 

Or would you? They’ve leaked 10 tries this season. We’ve only conceded 11. Are there signs of weakness? Can we exploit them?  Will the Davey influence happen? Will our televised jinx continue? Are the above just excuses for poor performances that have to change if we are to continue to be a team that performs in Europe’s premier Rugby tournament. As things stand we are so far off the pace it seems very unlikely that the winds of change are blowing our way.

 

A question of responsibility? Totally! Every man needs to start wearing and filling the shirt as professionals should and display the hunger, skills, fitness and savvy that means we can hold our heads high. It’s a big ask this weekend and with only Sarries, a 6 pointer versus Worcester and Leicester in the league before the end of 2007 it feels to me like we need at least 10 points from these 4 games. How many will be from this weekend? I predict we’ll do well to achieve a losing BP.

Prediction : London Irish 15 : 25 Gloucester