By Griff
May 2 2006

What a season! The quiet, efficient "evolution" of Brian Smith and his team has brought massive changes at Irish. Our boys have always been "plucky underdogs" or some other tabloid epithet for "not very good but triers". The 2005/6 season changed that, but we still had things to prove... In all the improvements this year we've always had the worry in our minds that we still couldn't beat the big boys. Spanked horribly at Edgeley Park, an enormous effort and played all the rugby at Welford Road to lose 36 - 3, Tigers, Sale and Wasps visits to the MadStad all showed we could match them for skill and physicality but we still had a way to go before we could predict wins against the top performers of the Guinness Premiership.

And so we came to our match at Adams Park (or alright, Causeway Stadium). Wasps have been one of the success stories of recent years. Along with Sale they have showed that you can build a good team and augment it and train it well to challenge for top honours. These two clubs showed the previous big boys Leicester and Bath that their hold on the trophies was not forever and that there would be a fight for the spoils. Wasps, however, going into the second-last game of the regular season haven't shown their usual acceleration toward the title, funnily enough, that has been the place of the Exiles.

Both sides needed the win to further their play-off ambitions and the side that lost would have a much trickier game next week to keep the dream alive. Irish, it could be said, had to win the game for another reason. They simply had to put one of the big boys away before facing any of them in the semis or face an even tougher mental challenge in that game.

I've been to the Causeway a fair few times and I've never really felt it was Wasps' "home", it always felt like a stadium they played at (much like the Madejski for us in the early days). The matchday experience was much better this time, with the outside bars and "village" out front it really felt like we were being welcomed by hosts rather than simply met. Magners "sampling" will always help, of course. I have to recommend the Cressex Park and Ride too, park by the M40 get a speedy and well-run bus to the stadium and then reverse the procedure post-match. All for the princely sum of sod-all, nada, zilch, nothing. Top people, really beats sitting in a traffic queue for what feels like a lifetime.

Taking up our positions in the standing Jewson stand we could see that Irish support had turned out in numbers for the local derby. I don't know the numbers but a guess would be that we had close to 1500 of the sell-out 10,000 crowd. Wasps chose to warm-up in front of us which must have pleased Mr Sackey who got to renew his acquaintance with MulledWineMarie and a few others...

The team announcement brought a surprise. Mike Catt would play outside centre and Dominic Fe'unati would take the 12 shirt. WHAT !?! What was Brian Smith thinking ? No offense to Dom but he's hardly up-to-speed and Catty has held the Exiles' ship firm by managing the 10/12 channel, a change now can't be good. I could see one reason, Ayoola Erinle was stood in front of us. "The sort of player", I mused, "that heavy machine guns were invented to stop...". My conlusion was that Smithy thought we could close the game down by limiting their bash through the middle and pick up scraps out wide. See ! That's how much I know about rugby.

We didn't have to wait to see what Mr O'Smith (for I think he must have earned the "O" by now) was thinking. Irish were up on the kick-off very quickly and stole the ball, quick hands worked the ball out and back in with massive clearing out by the forwards keeping the ball quick. A flick out from a clean ruck found the ball in Mr Fe'unati's large hands and the 6'1" 17+ stone centre showed he had more than bulk by side-stepping, weaving and finally bashing his way over the try-line. 45 seconds, 5 - 0 Irish.

Riki missed the very easy kick which took a bit of the shine off but we were ecstatic and the Wasps, both supporters and team, had a look of unease about them.

Their unease was abated shortly afterwards when Wasps repeated Irish's trick. From the restart the home-saide claimed the ball, kept it alive, Quins-bound Stuart Abbott showed Riki why you have to trust your inside cover and ripped a hole big enough for Erinle to run the ball in. Van Gisbergen, sporting to the last, missed the conversion. 5 all, game on.

The home side now had the hang of this, from the restart they claimed the ball and attacked ferociously with a well-worked move ending in the hands of a very strong Tom Voyce who muscled over for a second Wasps score. Van Gisbergen was done with being nice and made the conversion.

After such a blistering start we expected a bit of calm to descend but it was not to be. Again from the re-start Irish claimed the ball and tried to breach the home defence. When Bob Casey tries a chip-and-chase you know you're watching something special, the big man had a go, yes it was woeful but Van Gisbergen screwed the clearance up (I suspect he was laughing too hard) and Irish came back with a Leguizamon charge - complete with forward roll. This was followed by a deft chip over the ever-rushing Wasps line from Delon Armitage that showed both Armitage and Topsy O'Jo out-strip Van Gisbergen for pace. A subtle control of the ball with Topsy's knee and the speedy winger dropped greatefully onto the ball. Referee Tony Spreadbury went to the TMO for judgment for, I suspect, two reasons. Firstly he wasn't in the same half as the ball when it was scored and secondly he, like the rest of us, needed a breather. Riki missed the extras again.

Still no calm, the home side clearly didn't want their visitors getting a head of steam up and came back again. After a bit of a go with the forwards (there was actually a rolling maul!) they got the ball to Jeremy Staunton in the middle of the pitch who jinked his way through the Irish defence. Delon Armitage made possibly his only mistake of the day in not committing to the tackle and allowed Staunton to run through to score under the posts. Van Gisebergen doesn't miss those.

We then had a tiny section of rugby the rest of the GP would recognise. Both teams sizing the other up and the play going back and forth for, maybe, a couple of minutes. Possession swapped, territory was kicked and everyone knew what was happening. Then came, for me, the best try of the day. Beefy's hack forward from a Wasps ruck ended behind the Wasps line where it was collected by Simon Shaw on the 22, Shaw dummied a little with the ball in one massive hand and then ran to his right facing two Irish defenders. I don't think he saw the third, Kieran Roche who put in a massive hit on Shaw's left causing the big lock to spill the ball. It was gratefully collected and run forward by a rampant Dec Danaher who took the tackle and popped the ball up beautifully for Riki Flutey to score in the corner. Catt took over the kicking and put a massive conversion from the touch-line over the sticks.

Irish now remembered their game-plan and caught the restart and ran it straight back through virtually the whole team's hands and the Wasps' defence a sublime final flick out of the back of Mike Catt's hands in the tackle found Sailosei Tagikacibau a space to cross the whitewash on the right. A try bonus for Irish - in 19 minutes!!

Catty proved he is human by completely messing the conversion up - Toby Booth had a right laugh at him as he retreated for the restart.

Irish now seemed happy to simply dictate the pace, furious doesn't even begin to describe the first twenty minutes and it seems eminently sensible that Irish tried to return the normality, simply keeping possession and kicking to touch when needed. This tactic though slowly marched them back up into Wasps' half and allowed the backs another go. Topsy nearly touched down but was denied by Tom Voyce but the Wasps winger had carried the ball dead and from the 5m scrum the visitors again attacked. Wasps defence held well this time forcing Irish to try back and forth across the line to find a hole but the inevitable came with Bob Casey slam-dunking the ball for a try. Catty took the conversion easily from in front of the posts.

Again Irish tried to force the pace and made efforts to hold the ball and make forward progress at a more gentle pace. A few handling errors on both sides helped keep things sane but for a lovely break when Tagikacibau wnet one-on-one with ex-Irishman Paul Sackey. I saw Paul play for Wasps at the LDH and wondered how they'd managed to train the pace out of him - he has seemed a lot less quick playing for them, here was out chance to see. Sailosei very nearly did him for speed, another couple of yards of turf in width and he'd have been through but Paul, as we know he can, put in a cracking tackle to bring the move to a stop.

Wasps now knew they couldn't simply defend and hope to punish mistakes as they did at the Madejski they were going to have to play. They exerted possibly their best pressure of the match keeping the Irish defence making tackles and grinding up the pitch. Mark Van Gisbergen was tackled close to the Irish line, David Paice was on him immediately and tried to play the ball. It's even possible that he had it when Tony Spreadbury called "ruck" so, I feel, it was a bit harsh that he was subsequently sin-binned for the offence. It was a judgment-call, I've watched it a good few times and while it's easy to make the case that David was in the wrong it wasn't a sin-bin and no previous warnings had been given. When you look-back on the points Wasps scored during this critical "power-play" period you could think this single decision kept them in it. They started by taking the 3 points for Paicey's "offence".

Irish didn't simply open up the doors though, the defence stayed solid despite the Wasps pressure mounting. Everyone put in some huge tackles, Declan, Magne and Dodge were highlights but there were many. Just when we'd begun to believe we'd weather the man-advantage Riki tried a pass out wide and gifted an interception to Tom Voyce just as the clock ticked to 40. Van Gisbergen converted and we went in at half time 29 all.

Surely the second half couldn't match the first ? Would we be able to keep our heads having put such a great half together and ended-up level ? The heart said "yes" but the Irish-following head had its doubts...

The home side came out and took-up where they left off - winning the restart and putting together some lovely interplay to feed that man Voyce on the wing again for a score, just slightly slower than Irish's in the first-half. At least Van Gisbergen missed the extras.

Had the wheels come off for Irish ? Had the first-half been all they had ?

No, since you ask. From the restart the ball was, yet again, stolen and the forwards, with Paicey back on, put a good shove on giving a platform for Riki to chip over the defence for Catt to gather and score under the posts. He then converted putting Irish back into the lead for the final time, although the kick itself seemed to bring a certain amount of discomfort for the God of centre's.

We then got a breather, of sorts, it was still mayhem but at a slightly slower pace with Wasps getting the upper-hand but only just. Irish had to put in some massive defensive work to keep the men in black out. The pressure was finally relieved when Staunton returned Riki's favour from the first half and threw a wild wide pass straight to Delon Armitage who took the chance with aplomb - and no swallow dive!

Once Catty had kicked the conversion we then settled back into our attempts at controlling the game. Wasps, however, didn't win three championships by giving up and threw everything at us. A sequence of enforced personnel changes had us worried we'd run out of bench before the match was over. Most notably we lost Paul Hodgson who had been massive but was ably replaced by Ben Willis. The Wasps attacks were repelled and when Irish finally gave a penalty, for failing to roll-away, Dallaglio opted to have van Gisbergen kick the three points to keep the home side within a score 37 - 43.

They continued to apply pressure which Irish returned - in spades. Every Wasps attack was held and then replied to, both sides come close to scoring but never quite made it. Eventually Peter Bracken instinctively kicked out at a ball that Topsy Ojo had caught and the penalty was given wide and just inside Wasps' half. Catty was beyond kicking by this point and Riki stepped up to put Irish away from that single-score that Wasps were parying for. Having had a mare previously it was a massive responsibility but the Kiwi lad looked steady as a rock and put over a kick Lord Everitt himself would have been proud of.

Now Wasps were in trouble and they knew it, the game fell apart. Ben Willis picked up a ball at the back of an imploding ruck and just went. His run took him to within 10m of the try-line where he drew the tackle and off-loaded to Topsy for the speedy youngster's second of the night. The conversion was in about the same place for Riki but he missed it, and no-one cared. We were ecstatic, 50 points on the champions at home! But it wasn't over.

A frantic Wasps counter from their own 22 fell apart when Fraser Waters spilled the ball forward just as the game-clock counted to zero. Flutey was on the ball in an instant and broke all the way to the line for the cherry on the cake. Shane Geraghty missed a difficult conversion but by this time the Irish support was gibbering like maniacs. I suspect very few even noticed.

Final score Wasps 37 - 56 Irish.

To my mind the biggest win of Irish's history. Yes, I do mean bigger than the 2002 Powergen Cup final, that was indeed massive but this one was stunning. We took apart the three-time English champions to end their 15-month home record, when they were actually playing quite well, not their best but it certainly wasn't a "bad day at the office" for them either. We did it in front of a sell-out crowd and a TV audience when we needed to. If we can carry the momentum in the way Wasps have in previous seasons then who knows how this will all end...

If I am dreaming, please don't pinch me.