London Irish
The Best Cumberland Sausages EVER!!!
By Big-Al
November 21 2011
Those of us who have been supporting London Irish for more than around 3 or 4 games will no doubt be well aware that we never make it easy for ourselves - but all is not lost, losing a home match does not mean our HC campaign is over, but we do need something from our trip to Cardiff to get ourselves back on track.
So we travel to Cardiff in hope and expectation (at the very least, expectation of a better performance than last week) - our team shows a number of changes from last week, squad rotation in the front row, Hape having a few weeks off, Topsy back from injury.
The supporters coach sets off from the 3Gs at 3:15 and after picking up more supporters from various pick-up points, we had a nearly full coach and out came the nibbles - I have to say that B.Q.F.M's Cumberland Sausages were excellent, the best Cumberland Sausage ever.
This match marked B.Q.F.M's 10th anniversary as a London Irish supporter - B.Q.F.M's memory of that match is of meeting a certain Michael Horak for the first time - for the record we beat Northampton 48-12 - according to the stats (from the Northampton website, our offy site just gives the score and an error message if you look for more details) two of our current coaching staff were amongst our 7 try scorers as was Declan Danaher.
Despite the predictable hold ups on the M4, we arrived at the Cardiff City stadium in good time. There is a supporters’ area within the stadium where both club and supporters club merchandise were on sale and an Irish band was laid on for our pre-match entertainment.
On to the match - Cardiff kick off, we secure the ball, Cardiff take the ball illegally and from the resulting penalty Dan clears into the Cardiff half, but nothing comes of our resulting line out.
After 2 minutes Cardiff are awarded a penalty in our 22 and Dan Parks gives them a 3-0 lead.
Cardiff claim the restart and despite some pressure they clear to half way - we are turned over and a cross field kick takes us back into our 22 were we get turned over again, Dan parks misses a drop goal attempt, but play come back for the Cardiff penalty - they go for the corner and have a 5m line out - Cardiff secure the lineout and Rhys Thomas scores from the resulting maul - Dan Parks adds the extras - with just 8 minutes on the clock we find ourselves 10-0 behind.
Cardiff fail to claim the restart, Topsy makes a break, passing to Joe Ansbro, but he is forced into touch and Cardiff are able to clear their lines.
Cardiff are having the better of possession and territory - on 14 minutes a good break into our 22 by their no. 14, Alex Cuthbert, fortunately for us the ball is lost forward or we could have been further behind. From the resulting scrum, we get a penalty and clear our lines.
The next incident of note is on 19 minutes, Cardiff are in possession in mid field, Steve Shingler tackles Dafydd Hewitt, Hewitt is lifted above the horizontal and Shingler is red carded - at the time I hoped the card would be yellow, but was expecting it to be red, having viewed the incident again, it does look bad and despite the lack of malice, so I don't think we can have any complaints - now we wait to see how long a ban Steve will get (anything more than 3 or 4 weeks will get the conspiracy theorists going).
Dan Parks misses the resulting penalty - so with 20 minutes gone, we are 10 points and 1 man down, it could be a long night.
Molitika replaces Rush for Cardiff.
Following an LI line out around 30m out and a few phases, we are awarded a penalty for not rolling way, Tom Homer steps up and the deficit is reduced, Cardiff lead 10-3 after 26 minutes.
We claim the restart but lose possession after a couple of phases, Casey Laulala breaks into our 22, but his pass goes forward when a try was looking a distinct possibility. Cardiff regain possession in our 22 and are awarded a penalty, Dan Parks brings the lead back up to 10 points, 13-3 after 30 minutes.
Cardiff lose possession in their half, the ball is prodded deep into their 22 and Cardiff concede a penalty - Tom makes the score 13-6 after 33 minutes. After 38 minutes we have another penalty, I think for offside, and Tom makes the score 13-9. We fail to claim the restart and Lloyd Williams runs in Cardiff's second try, Parks misses the conversion, so the half time score is 18-9.
Irish start the second half, Paulica Ion has replaced Faan Rautenbach - after a few kicking exchanges Cardiff control possession in our half and gain a penalty in our 22 and they go for the 5m lineout, however they give away a penalty at the lineout and we are able to clear.
We have possession in the Cardiff half from a lineout and go through a few phases before being pinged, most likely for holding on, a quick tap penalty releases Cuthbert, he runs clear into our 22 but is stopped by a try saving tackle from Tom Homer. Cardiff continue to keep us under pressure in our own half and win a penalty which Parks slots over to increase Cardiff's lead to 21-9 after 50 minutes.
A couple of minutes later we win a penalty just in the Cardiff half and fairly wide on the right hand side of the pitch, Tom steps up and once again reduces the deficit, 21-12 after 54 minutes.
Jamie Gibson replaces Richard Thorpe and James Buckland replaces David Paice.
Alex Corbisiero replaces Clarke Dermody.
Cardiff start to bring on their replacements, Evans in on for Laulala and Richie Rees replaces Williams.
Another Cardiff replacement, Andrews on for Filise.
Not too much of note occurring both sides have had short periods of possession but neither looking threatening.
Dodge is on for Ross Samson.
A great effort from our scrum wins a penalty in front of the posts and Tom brings us into bonus point range - 21-15 after 64 minutes.
James Sandford replaces Matt Garvey.
We win another penalty, this time wide on the left and just inside our own half, Tom steps up to the mark once again, but the kick falls just short. Cardiff have good possession in our half, one break is thwarted by Tom, but Cardiff keep possession and work their way into are 22, Jamie Gibson is pinged for being off his feet and Parks extends Cardiff's lead back to 9 points, 24-15 after 70 minutes.
Another Cardiff change as Breeze replaces Thomas.
Adam successfully chases a box kick from Dodge, the ball goes across field and Tom breaks towards the Cardiff 22. After a few phases we are awarded a penalty on the 22 and Tom once again brings us into bonus point range - 24-18 after 75 minutes.
A box kick from Dodge is too long and goes dead, so back for the Cardiff scrum on half way, we get a good push on at the scrum and win another penalty, with only two minutes remaining and a 6 point deficit, we kick for touch and have a lineout on the Cardiff 22. We keep possession and make some progress into the 22, mainly through the forwards. A loose pass takes us outside the 22 and as we try to move forward the ball is lost and the game is over.
Cardiff Blues 24 - London Irish 18
Realistically our Heineken Cup campaign is over for this season, although 4 bonus point wins from our remaining matches could make things interesting. We can take some positives from this match, Tom's kicking continues to be a match for Barry the Boot at his best and there is a lot more to his game than the kicking, the scrum looked good and the whole team fronted up when we went down to 14 - for the 60 minutes we played with fourteen men, we outscored Cardiff by 18-14.
Unfortunately there are also 1 or 2 negatives, another player facing a ban (our injury list is getting shorter, but the number of players available remains constant), and conceding a soft try after failing to claim a restart.
I shall finish on a positive note – it was great to have a supporters’ coach running for this match, hopefully those on board enjoyed the trip and will be putting their names down for future trips, I’m sure the New Year’s Day trip to Bath will be a good one if we have a full coach.
And lastly….
they really were very good Cumberland Sausages.
Digg
Delicious
Facebook
Reddit
Stumbleupon21/11/2011 00:44
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Must have had things
other than the result on my mind.
Bisach I shall bring some sausages on Saturday so you can try them for yourself!
and as a Cumbrian I have to respond 
For the record the BEST Cumberland sausages are made by my cousin Stuart Higginson of Higginson's butchers in Cumbria and they have won many awards...
BQFM....I am sure yours are very nice though
Quote:Wayoutwest2
For the record the BEST Cumberland sausages are made by my cousin Stuart Higginson of Higginson's butchers in Cumbria and they have won many awards...
If you could bring some samples of these sausages to the LISC marquee before the match on Saturday, then we could have a tasting session
That is sooooo unfair...
