By Billy Hamilton
January 24 2011

After the Exile’s win over previous European Champions Munster at the beginning of the group stages, this game this had been the potential of being the deciding game of Group 3.

In the event it was almost the wooden spoon game. Like last season everything started so well for Irish in the pool but a disappointing loss to Ospreys and two defeats to Toulon left them with almost no hope of qualifying. A win last week against Ospreys gave them a psychological lift going into this final game.

Instead of compiling this report in a cold Thomond Park London Irish’s run of defeats had me reconsider the trip. So instead this report comes from a warm settee in Donaghadee. Having seen the game I wonder, to paraphrase what Samuel Johnson said about the Giants causeway “Worth seeing but was it worth going to see”?

Munster started the game very much on the front foot and over 80% of the play in the first quarter took place in the Irish half. Irish held out and after 15 minutes were at last on the attack in the opposition half. Then disaster struck when Faan Rautenbach got a yellow card for stamping at a ruck, an offence that was near the opponent’s head and could easily have brought a red one.

After 21 minutes it was the Exiles who had the first real scoring opportunity of the game but Dan Bowden’s 45 metre penalty attempt fell about 10 metres short. Four minutes later Bowden made a drop goal attempt which went wide.

As the half remained scoreless and drew to a close Irish were attacking near the Munster line but errors drove them back and it was then Munster who were encamped near our line. An easy penalty attempt was declined by Ronan O’Gara who kicked for touch. From the play following the resultant line out Munster got over the goal line but were adjudged to half knocked on. From the scrum and a free kick the Exiles got clear but another infringement saw them back in their own 22 again. Munster were to get over our line another 3 times before the interval, they were unable to ground twice and when Keith Earls had a clear run in the pass to him was adjudged forward and brought the half-time whistle.

Unusually a game at this level remained scoreless at half time.

Six minutes in to the second half the home side broke the deadlock when their maul pushed over the line and Damien Varley touched down. O’Gara’s conversion took the score to 7-0. Irish then had a good scoring chance but this came to nought when Chris Hala'Ufia accidentally ran into his own man on the way towards the line.
Irish were to level the scores ion spectacular fashion. Tomas O’Leary kicked towards touch from within his own 22. Darren Allinson charged down the Ball, this went to Seilala Mapusua who powered over for the try. Dan Bowden took a difficult conversion which looked to be going wide but curved in over the upright.

Maapasua was the key player in the next Irish try. He fielded his own kick a head, passed outside to Topsy Ojo who offloaded to Losi Tagicakibau who scored in the corner. Ryan Lamb added a difficult conversion to give us a 7-point lead going into the last 10 minutes.

Jamie Gibson was sent to the sin bin for handling in a ruck and we were down to 14 men at a crucial stage of the game.

A Munster rolling maul shortly afterwards saw Niall Ronan score their second try which O’Gara converted to level the scores. Keith Earls and Darragh Hurley added two more converted tries before the end to give Munster a bonus point and entry to the Amlin Cup quarter finals. Irish finished bottom of the group which they had started with such high hopes.

Irish can take hope for the future from sterling performances by Topsy at fullback, Darren Allinson at scrum half and Jamie Gibson at wing forward. The refereeing of Scotsman peter Allen left a lot to be desired with a lot of offside by Munster going undetected and the infamous hand in the ruck by a Munster player that had Allinson punished for knocking on a ball he had not touched!

Munster: 15. Johne Murphy (rep: Scott Deasy, 62); 14. Doug Howlett; 13. Keith Earls; 12. Lifeimi Mafi; 11. Dennis Hurley; 10. Ronan O’Gara; 9. Tomas O’Leary (rep: Peter Stringer, 67); 1. Wian Du Preez (rep: Hurley, 72); 2. Damien Varley (rep: Mike Sherry, 72); 3. John Hayes (Tony Buckley, 40); 4. Mick O’Driscoll (rep: Donnach O’Callaghan,62); 5. Paul O’Connell (Captain); 6. David Wallace (rep: James Coughlan, 69); 7. Niall Ronan; 8. Dennis Leamy (Captain)

London Irish: 15. Topsy Ojo; 14: Adam Thompstone; 13. Elvis Seveali’i; 12. Seilala Mapasua (Captain); 11. Sailosi Tagicakibau; 10. Dan Bowden (rep: Ryan Lamb, 62); 9. Darren Allinson (rep: Paul Hodgson, 75); 1. Alex Corbisiero (rep: Dan Murphy, 75); 2. James Buckland; 3. Faan Rautenbach (sin bin 16-26) (rep: Paulica Ion, 56); 4. Nick Kennedy (rep: Kieran Roche, 78) ; 5. Matt Garvey; 6. George Stowers (rep: Richard Thorpe, 56); 7. Jamie Gibson (sin bin 70-80); 8. Chris Hala’ufia

Referee: Peter Allen (SRU)