By hooray Henley
March 26 2013

Ok the fat blokes  didn’t do a lot of singing but boy! did they roll along side by side.  With only 20 minutes on the clock the Irish pack were two tries to nil up, both from rolling mauls and looked so dominant in both the tight and the loose that this game was as good as over.

The mean machine that is the Tongan terrible two of Huff and Halani were making huge holes with their power. First off Irish drove a maul 15 metres for their first try by Matt Garvey then they drove another for 30 metres before it was brought down illegally in the red zone. Another ref on another day against another team would have carded the Wuss player for bringing it down, But Mr. Barnes was in a good mood so Humph kicked to touch, Skiv caught the lineout and Halani did what Halani does.

One of the downsides of trys from driving mauls from lineouts is that the conversions are difficult, and Tom missed them both so Irish were 10 nil up with 20 minutes gone and frankly the pack were looking frighteningly hungry.

Worcester themselves then started to play a bit and had chances of their own which notably enabled Andy Goode to get a couple of penalties which Tommy Homer matched before the break. I am really sorry but I can’t resist this and it is not meant in any way maliciously but Andy Goode is now beginning to resemble that old torn Teddy bear that my daughter used to carry everywhere with her when she was about four, and he looks as likely to lose a limb should any of the sticky tape be removed as did that bear. Goode is however still an excellent performer in the AP and IMHO played the lead role in keeping Worcester anywhere near Irish.

The first half sort of petered out with lots of endeavour but not much accuracy. Irish’s kicking was superior and this really only allowed the Warriors to attack from distance. In doing so however Drauninui always looked dangerous and it was a good effort by the Irish midfield defence which kept him from making bigger inroads. Worcesters other standout was Blair Cowan. He made a lot of yards, and a lot of tackles and cleaned up the mess on numerous occasions. He doesn’t look like an 8 to me but I compared him on the video, head to head with Matt Garvey at 6 and boys, I reckon he will fit the bill nicely for us next season.

So the half ended 16 – 6 to Irish, well deserved if a bit on the low side considering the great start, and the 2nd half started brightly too. First off Halani scored his 2nd try of the game......Absolutely 100% certainly he got the try off the drive but it was not allowed so we got the 5M scrum. Big shove, scruffy tight head wheel leaving Hoff more work than should have been necessary, but the man is a juggernaut and over he went. Tommy converted and that was it, game over and the only question was how many tries would Irish get? As it turned out we didn’t get any more, although we should have with the best move of the game on 50 minutes, Topsy then Marland took the ball up and Humph got the ball between the 10 and the 22 with a prop in front of him. He did him for pace then dummied the back row cover to find himself one on one with the fullback and with Guy and Tommy outside him. If he’d thrown the fake he would have got in himself, but he threw the pass and it got knocked out by a covering defender, and that as they say was that. The game got very fractured, the replacements for both sides detracted rather than added and we got just one more penalty to end up 26 -6.

A few little observations –

I thought we kicked better in this game than in any other this season, not just the halfbacks but Shane, Marland and Tommy all kicked very well from hand..
We now look to have a really top class, if heavyweight back row into which I think Blair Cowan will fit very well next season, not as an 8 but as a direct replacement for Garvey at 6
Until Jamie Gibson came on, Mr Barnes saw little wrong with our work at the breakdown, so, coupl’a points.
1) why do other refs find our breakdown work so dodgy? and
2) Will Jamie give away as many penalties for Leicester next season?

So... Game over, a few dark ones while doing ice sculpture impressions watching the BCS, then a cab to the 3G’s to meet loads of old and new friends before a late dinner at Dolce Vita.

Good day out I call that.

Oh! And on a slightly OT note. The days big game, The ND2 south top of the table clash between Henley Hawks and Kieron Dawson’s Worthing raiders was postponed so I’ll get a chance to watch that too.

Happy days

Come on You Irish!!