By LI Bohemian
February 2 2023

My friend and I experienced difficulty with our normal route to the ground on Sunday, we were outwitted by the LU with the various closures of lines to make the journey to the G-Tech stadium, we finally got to the Gunnersbury tube station with no time to partake in the supping of beer, due to the time constraints, we even got a bus from the tube station to the ground.

My mate was famished when we arrived there, and so queued for food in the stadium. This was a big mistake on two counts: firstly he missed the first try and secondly they had run out of the food that he wanted when he finally got to the front of the queue, which felt like a nod to the old Madstad days.

The atmosphere was very good inside the stadium, it seems to improve with every home game I’ve attended. There was a large block of Harlequins supporters to my left in the North stand and the west stand was pretty much full of Quins fans, they were in good spirits as were the Irish fans, obviously they smelt green blood, and to be fair I felt the same way too. I wasn't looking forward to the gloating opposition fans after the game.

These feelings of wow turned to shock as Irish scored two tries in the opening 7 minutes, you couldn’t say that the opposition were still on the coach from the long journey, most of them could have walked it and got there quicker than taking the tube. Both tries were by the up and coming new boys that roll off the LI academy conveyer belt, Cunningham-South and Dykes.

The second try did cheer up my despondent hungry mate as he finally got to his seat.

Harlequins came back with some good possession and positional play, this was sandwiched with a brief stop in play where the TMO and match officials looked for a long time at a non-clash of heads incident involving CC-S, amazingly? No red for Irish, even though the Quins fans were shouting “off, off, off.” Irish defended well but a lapse of judgment from Dykes resulted in a penalty try to Quins and a deserved yellow card for the winger.

Irish even with a man down came back and scored a try through the Brilliant Stokes ripping the caught restart and racing across the line.

The game changer came when Lewies the Quins captain caught CC-S in the head with his shoulder when driving him out of a ruck, earning a red card.

With the teams at 14 men a piece Quins got the next try but the half finished with Dykes getting his second and the try bonus point on the stroke of half time.

The half time entertainment was a singer on his guitar over the PA and it was the best entertainment for me since the City Jet seat raffle. [Editors Note: the singer was Ronan McManus - Elvis Costello's brother and lead singer of the Biblecode Sundays and Brand New Zeros.]

I, surprisingly, still wasn't convinced that Irish would get a win (massive idiot) but this was thought was dismissed at the start of the half when that man Dykes got his hat trick.

Although Quins did get a four try bonus point they never looked like they could win the game and the host of changes that did disrupt the Irish play, (as it usually does) led to some pantomime errors with the line beckoning, the final score came from the fantastic Pearson to be converted by Paddy Jackson who Kicked 100% of his conversions and was pretty faultless all game. Final score 42-24 yes, I was buzzing.

To sum up the game all the players that started for Irish and those who came on in the first half as subs were on it from the off, CC-S is a wrecking ball of a player, Pearson is the best number seven for Irish since Steffon, Paddy is back to his best, Bernhard is, well, he is Bernhard. I know that it is rumored that Ollie is off to Tigers but we have yet another gem in Dykes. The Irish scrum creaked a little but Quins have one of the best scrummaging coaches on their team and the reputation to drop front rows and get away with it. The line-out wasn't perfect but it was better than the Quins line-out which people don't seem to notice, Quins have a problem with their old boys in that they are used to getting their way and it is possible to bully some officials but not all them.

Finally, after a much deserved pint in the Gunnersbury Arms, I realized that I had not been to a home game where Irish have lost this season, which does not explain the continued pessimism from me, I guess this only makes the result so much more enjoyable, and as Guy Garvey would say “pull those curtains wide, one day a year like this would do me fine.” (Well, more than one day).