London Irish
Review of the 2008/9 season
By Griff
August 10 2009
With the new season rapidly approaching it seems a reasonable time to look back at 2008/9 and discuss what happened and why to give us some idea of our prospects in the competitions to come.
2008/9 was arguably the most successful season for London Irish ever. Although 2001/2 yielded the only piece of silverware in the club's 110 year history, last year saw Irish step out of obscurity and into the forefront of the domestic competition. Qualification back to the European top-table gives the opportunity to further promote the club and make it a real contender in UK and Euro rugby.
The year began with severe gnashing of teeth and wailing from the LI faithful. The perfidious RFU had nipped-in and stolen our new best-friend and coach. Brian Smith started a revolution at Irish, he called it an evolution but whatever you label it Brian's vision for how Irish would play was a stark contrast from his (at least recent) predecessors'.
Gone was the limited plan of grinding-out victories with little use of the backs and in came a game-plan that required skill and speed all-over the pitch, a willingness to off-load from the tackle and an almost suicidal will to play the ball from anywhere.
To see Smiffy leave without completing his plan was gutting, it seemed unlikely that any successor would be able to continue without some form of drop-off. It also seemed unlikely, even with the RFU pay-off for Brian's contract, that Irish would be offering big-bucks to a genuine world-class coach. In the end they didn't have to go looking, the players requested Brian's second-in-command and forwards coach Toby Booth to take the reins.
It was almost impossible to believe that someone with so little front-line experience would succeed but the die was cast and all we could do was hope.
Along with the changes at the top we, the supporters, had another worry. The spectre of the ELVs was looming large. They were, we were told, going to remove any forward play from the game and turn our beloved Union into some sort of low-rent League. It didn't, though, in fact the ELVs passed pretty-much without need for comment. More often than we would have liked the games deteriorated into a ping-pong battle of kicks but the removal of any forwards' participation proved groundless.
More of an influence, though, were the latest IRB rulings at the breakdown. Finally referees were penalising players at the ruck for killing the ball and/or handling on the ground. This, more than any ELV produced a fast-flowing game and, to our delight, played into the hands of London Irish's pace-based game-plan. As we will see.
The other cup...
It wasn't all brilliant, though. The EDF Anglo Welsh Cup has always been a bit of a side-show that no English club really cares about. As Irish had one of the smallest squads in the Guinness Premiership it was unthinkable that we could commit the first XV to compete in the EDF.
The year began with severe gnashing of teeth and wailing from the LI faithful. The perfidious RFU had nipped-in and stolen our new best-friend and coach. Brian Smith started a revolution at Irish, he called it an evolution but whatever you label it Brian's vision for how Irish would play was a stark contrast from his (at least recent) predecessors'.
Gone was the limited plan of grinding-out victories with little use of the backs and in came a game-plan that required skill and speed all-over the pitch, a willingness to off-load from the tackle and an almost suicidal will to play the ball from anywhere.
To see Smiffy leave without completing his plan was gutting, it seemed unlikely that any successor would be able to continue without some form of drop-off. It also seemed unlikely, even with the RFU pay-off for Brian's contract, that Irish would be offering big-bucks to a genuine world-class coach. In the end they didn't have to go looking, the players requested Brian's second-in-command and forwards coach Toby Booth to take the reins.
It was almost impossible to believe that someone with so little front-line experience would succeed but the die was cast and all we could do was hope.
Along with the changes at the top we, the supporters, had another worry. The spectre of the ELVs was looming large. They were, we were told, going to remove any forward play from the game and turn our beloved Union into some sort of low-rent League. It didn't, though, in fact the ELVs passed pretty-much without need for comment. More often than we would have liked the games deteriorated into a ping-pong battle of kicks but the removal of any forwards' participation proved groundless.
More of an influence, though, were the latest IRB rulings at the breakdown. Finally referees were penalising players at the ruck for killing the ball and/or handling on the ground. This, more than any ELV produced a fast-flowing game and, to our delight, played into the hands of London Irish's pace-based game-plan. As we will see.
The other cup...
It wasn't all brilliant, though. The EDF Anglo Welsh Cup has always been a bit of a side-show that no English club really cares about. As Irish had one of the smallest squads in the Guinness Premiership it was unthinkable that we could commit the first XV to compete in the EDF.
So it proved, a second-string containing virtually the entire academy, a returning-from-injury Shane Geragthy and a lot of new names for the support to learn took the field at Sixways and were comprehensively out-played by an equally second-string Worcester. The loss pretty-much condemned the EDF as an inconvenience for the Irish.
Despite beating the Ospreys at the MadStad and beginning Irish's season whitewash of Quins at the Stoop, the damage was already done and Irish bowed-out of the tournement.
Still to come - Part II ECC and GP...
Despite beating the Ospreys at the MadStad and beginning Irish's season whitewash of Quins at the Stoop, the damage was already done and Irish bowed-out of the tournement.
Still to come - Part II ECC and GP...
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Discussion started by The Craic www.londonirish.org , 10/08/2009 18:25
The Craic www.londonirish.org
10/08/2009 18:25
10/08/2009 18:25
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