By BrianC
August 16 2004

We lose two crucial games after Christmas. Our season now looks like it will ne a mediocre one.On the plus side we have over 20,000 for the Boxing Day game, a new club record. An Ed’s diary – 8th January 2004

I’ve been away on holiday for a couple of weeks so there is quite a lot to catch up on. Unfortunately for us, at such a crucial time of the season, we have lost two very important matches and are down to 5th in the table. It now looks as if our season will end up a mediocre one, on current form we’ll struggle to win a Heineken Cup place. This is such a shame after the very bright start we had. Having said that, at the start of the season when many of the pundits and bookmakers were tipping us for relegation I would have been delighted to sit where we are in the table.

Rotherham 10 – 15 London Irish. I’m now writing this over three weeks since this game so my memory of it has faded somewhat. Rotherham picked up their first, and so far only, ZP point against us in a scrappy game played in atrocious conditions. In doing so they gave us quite a scare. The general feeling on the site is that this was a poor performance from our side, that we could and should have buried Rotherham in the first half. Nevertheless a win is a win. After this game we sit third in the ZP, on the same number of points as second place Wasps. For some time now those of us who have been looking at the fixtures have felt that our next two games would be crucial to our season.

London Irish 19 – 34 Wasps. As this game was on Sky I was able to watch it whilst on holiday. Yes we lost but it was a good performance against perhaps the best team in Europe at the moment. It could so easily have gone the other way. For me the pivotal point in the game was mid way through the first half. Having gifted Wasps an early try we were 0 – 7 down but we had managed to play our way back into the game. From our own ten meter line Tofty lobbed a clever kick through which Bish caught and he was clear, with support and only one defender to beat. A try looked certain but instead Bish was pinged for offside, Wasps were awarded a penalty which they scored. TV replays clearly showed that this was a bad call, Bish was comfortably behind Tofty when he lobbed the ball, instead of the score being 7 - 7 as it should we were now 0 – 10 down. We showed great resolve and did come back at them, at one point in the second half being within four points. In the end they proved the stronger team and, I have to say deservedly, won.

Match aside it was an incredible day. The crowd was 20,318, a club record and very nearly a ZP record. I believe the size of this crowd caught everybody by surprise. In the week before the game there was a great scramble for East Stand tickets on the messageboard, it having been sold out and the South Stand opened by that stage. There was an accident on he M4 which compounded the already horrendous traffic problems. As the Wasps coach was caught in this the kick off was delayed for 30 minutes. Some reported that it took them an hour to get from the M4 to the stadium. By all accounts facilities at the stadium were very stretched, people could not get into the Craic or the hotel, the queues for food and drink were inordinate. No doubt there are some lessons to be learnt.

A few other events from the day are worth noting. The World Cup was displayed at half time, carried round the pitch by Laurence Dagalalio to a great reception. A car park party was held to mark ‘Dave’ and JoeV’s engagement and before the game an exhibition match was played between the Flatulence Fairies and the Lardon Wasps.

London Irish 15 – 36 Northampton. Very much a game of two halves. At half time we went in 15 – 10 up and looked to have a good chance of wining this game. How we then shipped 26 unanswered points in the second half is a cause of worry to some, upset to others. There has been a lot of criticism on the messageboard of the referee Mr Pearson. Some are saying that he interpreted the rules differently in the second half to the first, the Saints having complained to him at half time. I can’t see that myself but it’s a valid opinion.

The site has continued to grow healthily. In 2003 we had a total of just over 2.5 million hits. Growth in the Oct/Nov/Dec quartile is 35% over the previous year. If we manage to maintain something around this figure we should be looking at 3.25 million in 2004. A lot of work goes into maintaining the site and at times running it can be a frustrating process, I fully empathise with Loob’s reasons for resigning as co-ed last summer. That said it is generally a fun and rewarding thing to do, particularly when we see growth figures like these.