By NoExpert
September 19 2011

It has been 7 years since London Irish won at Franklins Gardens and with the national Irish team unexpectedly winning in the morning our Irish team pulled off a memorable double.

Although both teams had an experimental look this was an important win for an LI team with an average age of just 24. The absence of 7 players at the RWC and the 7 sidelined with injury meant that our bench included a seventeen year old and a jet lagged Kiwi.

For many of our supporters, it was a case of going from the Park (Eden) to the Gardens. On a perfect playing surface refreshed by light rain, the game started in a tentative fashion. Little of note happened until the ten minute mark when JFK was interfered with in mid-air in the lineout. Tom duly slotted over the kick from a wide angle.
Saints 0 – Irish 3

Saints responded with more urgency in their play and when the Huff was pinged for a high-ish tackle Lamb knocked over the penalty. Now our ref Mr Fox was 2-3 metres from the incident and happy to let it pass until the intervention of the touch judge who was 25 metres away. Officials ay!
Saints 3 – Irish 3

When Saints conceded a penalty for not rolling away, Tom’s kick struck the upright for a moderately difficult position. Dan then made a searing break only to get isolated and the opportunity lost.

As half time approached the next points came to Saints. Having been driven back by Saints at the scrum we defended desperately in our 22 and withstood a number of forays around the fringes of the breakdown. However we were offside and Lamb converted the penalty.
Saints 6 – Irish 3

From the restart, another mazy run by Diggin resulted in a pen against us for not releasing. Saints went for the lineout and from the ensuing drive and rucks in our 22 Leo was binned (not sure why). To concede 6 points so close to half time would have been a big blow in a tight game but fortunately Lamb failed with the kick.

HT: Saints 6 – Irish 3

The view at HT was that it was a fairly even game with both sides making several handling errors. Although the penalty count at the scrums was fairly close Saints had the upper hand as they repeatedly wheeled our put-ins. However Fox often interpreted this as boring-in by Saints. We had a good deal of possession and recycled well but our back play was often too lateral. In general both defences were on top.

The second half began in total farce. LI sent out Max in place of Ziggy after the interval only for Max to be sent from the field before the restart by Fox as you are apparently not allowed to make the change until the first scrum. Instead Sisi came on for Ziggy. Two minutes later Max duly came on for Sisi at the first scrum of the second half. Laws ay!

LI were looking comfortable with 14 men and as the sin bin period was nearing its completion, Saints were pinged at the breakdown as LI took the ball through several phases following a lineout. Tom levelled the scores.
Saints 6 – Irish 6

With Leo’s sin bin now ended 18 year old David Sisi came on as the blindside for the reminder of the game. Lamb‘s restart kick failed to go the full 10 metres and Saints were penalised at the ensuing scrum. Tom’s kick from the half way line missed by inches.

The tempo was now starting to pick up and LI’s forward momentum was rewarded with a try. Chris H smashed his way through a series of tackles in midfield and offloaded to Topsy coming in from his wing. He was hauled down short of the line under the posts but quickly recycling and 2 fast wide passes found JFK hogging the touchline. He duly dotted down in the corner with Tom’s touchline conversion drifting wide.
Saints 6 – Irish 11

Mallinder immediately responded to the try by replacing Lamb with Myler, and then brought on Doran Jones. From an incursion to our 22, we were pinged for not releasing in the tackle. Fortunately Myler missed the fairly straightforward penalty kick.

With more urgency in Saints play, Toby made a triple change with Mark George, Cabbage and Dodge replacing Clarke, Paicey and Darren A. We soon lost the ball on our own scrum and were forced to defend desperately in our own 22. When we were pinged at a lineout, Saints kicked to the corner and from the lineout and drive, they carried the ball over our line. We managed to hold up the ball but the Saints pressure was becoming relentless. By now Mujati was on and our scrum was creaking alarmingly. We brought on Evans for Garvey for the 5 metre scrum and were immediately penalised for collapsing it. Saints spurned the points and elected to re-take the scrum. A huge Saints drive sent us backwards and forced us to collapse the scrum again giving Fox no option but to award the penalty try. Welcome to English rugby Bryn!
Saints 13 – Irish 11

With the conversion a formality, we only had few minutes to try and rescue the game. We kept Saints pegged in their own half and when we regained the ball, we took it through a couple of phases only for Saints to handle the ball on the deck. There was hint of a knock-on by LI in the build-up but independent LI witnesses claim that the ball clearly bounced backward. It seemed to take an eternity for Tom to take the kick as there was a player injured adjacent to the ball. It was not a particularly difficult kick but with only 2 minutes on the clock this was effectively our last chance. Tom calmly slotted the kick straight through the middle of the posts.
Saints 13 – Irish 14

We made absolutely sure of the restart and set up a series of pick-and-go drives which inched us forward until Dan joyfully ran the ball out of play with no time left on the clock.

FT: Saints 13 – Irish 14

All matches tend to throw up sub-plots and the main one here was Bowden against Lamb. Dan clearly won this duel being both more consistent and inventive while Ryan had a mixture of good moments and bad ones – passes not going to hand, occasional poor kicks. Dan was more controlled and ran some clever lines including loop moves.

Franklin Gardens has proven to be a difficult venue for us. Even our last win here was only by a single point (21-20). Today’s narrow win, after 2 defeats, will be a massive boost to the young squad (Toby’s tots?). To me the most impressive aspect of the game was the response to Saints late try. Heads could have gone down but instead we showed great determination to get into field range and force the error without getting desperate.

So far this season the margin of our matches has been (chronologically) -5, -1, +1. If we can maintain this sequence then we should be in good shape by the end of the season!