London Irish
One Way Traffic
By Babs_O
March 29 2010
Another year and another St Patrick’s day report for me to write. I do however have a confession to make…every time I have written one of these I have had the benefit of the game being on sky so I can record it and refer to it! But this time around I had no such luck and so had to make my notes as the game went on so I could assemble something vaguely resembling a report!
So on to the rugby, 2010 hasn’t been a great year so far for the men in green and with the race for the top 4 getting ever tighter, it was important for us to start the match well and take the game to Sale. The sharks had done us a favour the week before beating wasps and so I thought we would be in for a tough game.
So kick off and all the early pressure is from the exiles and the first 5 mins seem to set the tone for the game. Irish put a lot of pressure on Sale and that pressure eventually tells when John Rudd scores in the right corner after 6 mins. Lamb misses the difficult conversion. 5-0 Irish and it’s a good start. We are playing all the rugby and looking like our old selves again, Pete Hewat being assured and confident at full back and Delon on the wing looking eager for work and more like his old self. The back line work well to create an opening and Delon thinks he has scored but it was disallowed for a forward pass. However Lamb strikes a penalty to make it 8-0 to Irish mid way through the first half. Sale eventually start to get into the game and put some phases together and irish concede a penalty in front of the sticks. However you know its your day when Charlie Hodgson misses a simple kick. Irish get back on top and Lamb gets 2 more penalties to take it to 14-0 at half time. My notes here say only 14-0 as I feel that with all the possession we have had, we should be more points ahead but as long as we are keeping the score board ticking, I feel confident that we will win the game. Chris H, Steff and John Rudd are having good games so far.
2nd half kicks off and we carry on where we left off in the first and immediately get ourselves into the Sale 22 and force a scrum. Chris H carries well breaking tackles and he offloads to Rochey who offloads to Steff who finishes well in the corner. Missed conversion and the score is 19-0 and I’m starting to think the bonus point is on the cards. 5 mins later and from a line out in the Sale 22, Rochey wins the ball and Chris H again powers through but offloads to Steffon who again scores but this time under the posts making the conversion a simple one for Ryan Lamb. 26-0 and if they didn’t look it before, Sale now look like a beaten team. The evidence for this is in the substitution of Charlie Hodgson. I very much doubt he was injured but in my mind they are saving him for their important game against Worcester on Friday night. Anyway back to our game and Irish are playing with the old panache again, getting the ball wide, making breaks and offloading the ball. Everyone is keen to get their hands on the ball to secure that bonus point. Our wishes are granted when the ball moves down the line and Pete Hewat scores in the left corner. Conversion missed and the score is 31-0. A number of changes are made on both sides and the subs are keen to make an impact on the game, Matt Garvey, Alex Corbiseiro and Max Lahiff all get on the field for some well needed game time and the beast doesn’t take long to make an impact as he scores the 5th try for the Irish from close range after good work by the pack. Converted by Malone and the game finishes 38-0.
So on to my usual final thoughts on the game. Well its difficult to pick an Irish man of the match as the team as a whole played well. Honourable mentions to Steff Armitage and Kieron Roche who had good games but having thought about it, my award goes to both Chris H and Ryan Lamb. Chris gets my vote because he set up two tries by consistently getting over the gain line, breaking tackles and offloading. Mr Lamb gets my vote because he kept the back line moving well and brought our strong runners into the game and played the way a good 10 should. His tactical kicking was also a plus point. During my report you may notice that I only mentioned one Sale player and that is because I cannot recall anything of note that the Sale Sharks did during the game. Without wanting to sound to harsh, they are the poorest team I have seen at the Mad Stad for a long time.
And as for us… well we have a tough finish to the season and we will need to keep performing to secure that top four spot starting with swatting the Insects next week.
So kick off and all the early pressure is from the exiles and the first 5 mins seem to set the tone for the game. Irish put a lot of pressure on Sale and that pressure eventually tells when John Rudd scores in the right corner after 6 mins. Lamb misses the difficult conversion. 5-0 Irish and it’s a good start. We are playing all the rugby and looking like our old selves again, Pete Hewat being assured and confident at full back and Delon on the wing looking eager for work and more like his old self. The back line work well to create an opening and Delon thinks he has scored but it was disallowed for a forward pass. However Lamb strikes a penalty to make it 8-0 to Irish mid way through the first half. Sale eventually start to get into the game and put some phases together and irish concede a penalty in front of the sticks. However you know its your day when Charlie Hodgson misses a simple kick. Irish get back on top and Lamb gets 2 more penalties to take it to 14-0 at half time. My notes here say only 14-0 as I feel that with all the possession we have had, we should be more points ahead but as long as we are keeping the score board ticking, I feel confident that we will win the game. Chris H, Steff and John Rudd are having good games so far.
2nd half kicks off and we carry on where we left off in the first and immediately get ourselves into the Sale 22 and force a scrum. Chris H carries well breaking tackles and he offloads to Rochey who offloads to Steff who finishes well in the corner. Missed conversion and the score is 19-0 and I’m starting to think the bonus point is on the cards. 5 mins later and from a line out in the Sale 22, Rochey wins the ball and Chris H again powers through but offloads to Steffon who again scores but this time under the posts making the conversion a simple one for Ryan Lamb. 26-0 and if they didn’t look it before, Sale now look like a beaten team. The evidence for this is in the substitution of Charlie Hodgson. I very much doubt he was injured but in my mind they are saving him for their important game against Worcester on Friday night. Anyway back to our game and Irish are playing with the old panache again, getting the ball wide, making breaks and offloading the ball. Everyone is keen to get their hands on the ball to secure that bonus point. Our wishes are granted when the ball moves down the line and Pete Hewat scores in the left corner. Conversion missed and the score is 31-0. A number of changes are made on both sides and the subs are keen to make an impact on the game, Matt Garvey, Alex Corbiseiro and Max Lahiff all get on the field for some well needed game time and the beast doesn’t take long to make an impact as he scores the 5th try for the Irish from close range after good work by the pack. Converted by Malone and the game finishes 38-0.
So on to my usual final thoughts on the game. Well its difficult to pick an Irish man of the match as the team as a whole played well. Honourable mentions to Steff Armitage and Kieron Roche who had good games but having thought about it, my award goes to both Chris H and Ryan Lamb. Chris gets my vote because he set up two tries by consistently getting over the gain line, breaking tackles and offloading. Mr Lamb gets my vote because he kept the back line moving well and brought our strong runners into the game and played the way a good 10 should. His tactical kicking was also a plus point. During my report you may notice that I only mentioned one Sale player and that is because I cannot recall anything of note that the Sale Sharks did during the game. Without wanting to sound to harsh, they are the poorest team I have seen at the Mad Stad for a long time.
And as for us… well we have a tough finish to the season and we will need to keep performing to secure that top four spot starting with swatting the Insects next week.
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Discussion started by The Craic www.londonirish.org , 30/03/2010 01:55
The Craic www.londonirish.org
30/03/2010 01:55
30/03/2010 01:55
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Thanks BABS 0 - tell Topsy to get fit soon...............you never mentioned the PARTY IN THE PARK.........did you miss it!
MWM
LONDON IRISH - and loving it......
LET'S GO IRISH....LET'S GO IRISH
...........
MWM
LONDON IRISH - and loving it......
LET'S GO IRISH....LET'S GO IRISH
...........
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