London Irish
A day to remember, a match to forget
By Props Are Not Stupid
November 9 2015
Let's be honest. I did not expect that I was going to see a London Irish win today. We were playing against a much superior Bath team, at least in terms of money spent on players. What I was expecting was a steady progression from London Irish and if everything went our way we could be bagging our first point of the season. Unfortunately for us, the TMO killed the rugby star and a final 14-45 score, although it may not have been a true reflection of each team's merits, it starts raising the alarms of what is going to be a very long season.
It was so wet and windy in the morning that the guests I had booked tickets for decided not to go to the game. As my family also decided to stay at home, I managed to convince a couple of Spanish girls to come to the game with me. They were proper rugby virgins, not only this was their first visit to the Madstad but also the first time they ever saw a game of rugby at all. I gave them a drum each and they drummed happily for the duration of the game.
Before kick off a minute of silence was observed by everyone present to remember the victims of wars. Some may have remembered their relatives that took part in past or present conflicts, some may have said a prayer and some others may think to themselves when are we going to stop thinking about wars and start thinking about peace.
Game kicks off under a blue sky and it wasn't long before the first knock on and the first late hit on Shane. Some say he is a fly half, some say he is a centre, but he does wait too long before he passes sometimes when under pressure, and he was targeted by Bath in his first start of the season. He recovered the first hit and lasted the whole game, but in his first opportunity for a fairly easy kick at goal he missed. It is a pity not having a high average scoring kicker, and it is an even bigger pity seeing Tom Homer in a Bath shirt. Not just Tom, but also Garvey, Lahiff and many other players, coaching and support staff that made the move to Bath for whatever reasons they have. I have seen them all grow through the academy at Sunbury for years and it does feel as if your girlfriend has left you for that guy who drives a bigger car.
I am assuming that either you were at the game or you have read the papers, watch the video, etc, so you know who scored at what minute and all of that and you are just reading this to see someone else’s impression of the game, so let’s go straight to the point: that red card on McKibin. As most of the people at the Madstad (including the ref) I hadn't spotted it on real time. This is what happened: we have a line out, which we win and a very effective maul is created that the pack drive forwards towards the try line. The maul gets pulled down illegally and the ref awards a penalty try to Irish and sends Garvey to the bin. Bath were already playing with 14 men as Bath number 7 Faosiliva was in the bin following a nasty high tackle on Lewington. At that point Bath were 10-0 up, and Irish were facing the prospect of being 7-10 playing against 13 men. Television Match Official Rowan Kitt advices main referee Premiership debutant Thomas Foley that he should have a look at a possible aggression on Bath tight-head prop Thomas. After reviewing the play on the big screen he has no alternative other than reverse his decision of a penalty try and yellow card for Garvey and send Irish scrum-hald McKibbin to the showers with a red card. As I said earlier I didn’t see this very well at the time, so I have watched the game again a couple of times, rewinding and pausing when required –yes, you owe me a beer, and although there is no argument on the red card, I could count half a dozen nastier cheap shots in the game that did not get a red card, and sometimes not even a yellow. Although McKibbon’s actions are very hard to defend and he will spend a number of weeks in the cooler, he was not trying to cause an injury to Thomas, who scratched his head and got up as if nothing had happened.
Would Irish have won if it wasn’t for this incident? Of course not. We were going backwards in every single scrum, and I counted three scrums that Bath took against the head. It improved in the second half after the introduction of a fresh set op props. Our line-outs were just about ok and our mauls were our best attacking option. What killed us was not an awesome opposition, but the circumstances. We started with three number eights (Guest-Sisi-McCusker), a centre playing fly-half (for those of you that think that Shane is not a 10), a winger playing full-back, and we ended up with two fly halves and two hookers in the pitch, but with not scrum-half as Steele only lasted 10 minutes before he had to leave the pitch injured. Bath were not great, believe me; which is what makes this defeat even harder to swallow. The guys did what they could under the circumstances and they deserve a well-earned break next week, when the premiership gives way for the European competition, whatever it is called nowadays. I am assuming we will try to get a good win against Agen, but we will not risk any injuries to any of our first choice players.
After the game I went to the hotel to see Caimh interviewing man of the match and part time scrum half and full back Topsy Ojo, and our saviour Ben Franks. It does feel like when Newcastle was leaking players like Wilkinson, Flood and Tait, but they still had Carl Hayman. Were they relegated? No, at least not that year. I have absolutely nothing against Newcastle, but I hope they get relegated this year, otherwise we will be the ones dropping to the abyss of Championship rugby.
My guests loved it and they will be back next Saturday, will you?
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If Shane had taken a quick DG for the conversion before the TMO tipped off the ref, could the ref still have over-ruled the try or not...?
I know you can get away with a sneaky quick conversion for eg. a TMO forward pass reveiw, but is it the same as for a TMO foul-play review...?
I am not trying to defend McKibbon's actions, I am just saying it wasn't a vicious attack.
