By Griff
November 17 2005

Back in September I wrote a report from the LI Open Day at the Madejski. LI Confidential was so named because it contained new insights into the workings of LI and also because there was a definite air of confidence about the place. The workings have continued to change, the confidence has grown...

The evening itself was very pleasant, a group of like-minded people getting together to discuss a common interest. Brian Smith and Toby Booth had come to answer any questions members of the LISC might have about the "new look" London Irish. They came across as a good team themselves, both having respect for the other's skills but also both having, that word again, confidence in their abilities.

I attended the similar evening a while back with Gary Gold, having coached the team to a disappointing set of results, looking a relegation dog-fight in the eyes. That event was interesting but strained, you didn't want to put Gary on the spot, although he gave a great account of himself. Last night you got the feeling that there were no issues the managment team had marked "off-limits" and that you'd get a straight answer about pretty much anything.

First we got to see video of the tries from November. The subtitle "So Far..." may have been used (sorry, was late arriving) because you got the feeling that these were the first of many. We then went into a Q&A session with a number of interesting questions being posed, and answered.

I'm not going to do a word-for-word report, for a start I didn't take any notes, but mainly because this was an LISC event for LISC members and if you want the full effect you should join the LISC and attend the next one (there may well be a report of it in the next eXile Files too, you never know). The LISC are a fine bunch, they are our official link to the club and deserve our support.

Some selected highlights:

Back play

Brian gave his opinion as to why very similar personnel are achieving much more in the backs this season. Firstly, giving credit to Toby, he said that the forwards are securing much better posession, we all know this and it's been widely celebrated. The thing that hadn't occurred to me though was that with Catty taking on a much more central role in the plays the opposition has less of an idea where an attack will come from. Riki's try in Newcastle is the classic example here. Last season the play would have been called and made by Barry at 10, everyone knew this and all they did was hit him as quickly as they can. Nowadays a good deal of posession goes straight through Barry (or Riki) to "the second receiver" (you can take the man out of Rugby League...) so teams have to mark the 10 channel and the 12. This gives everyone a bit more space and, as we saw on Friday, Barry managed to use this beautifully to put Catty and then Flutey in for a score.

The other change is that nobody in the team will be berated for "having a go", they will however if they don't... This, to my mind, is a marked change from our previous coaching structure and is obviously suiting the players a lot more.

Training with England

This obviously amused both coaches, something had definitely given them a giggle. The story told was that (Toby) "we went to the gig, learned the All-Black moves they wanted to train against in 10 minutes, did some line-out training, won all ours, stole most of theirs and came home". How close to the truth that is, is up to the reader. Brian posted his thoughts on the international merits of his lads on the official website around that time.

Brian rates Andrew Sheridan very highly, "best tighthead of the modern era". He said that Saturday's match-up against Hayman will be a cracker - he also said to expect similar fireworks when Sale come to us and he meets Faan.

What happened at Saints?

Northampton was a bitter pill for many, we had that match won and let it go. Brian was asked what he thought went wrong, besides the clock debacle.

The answer was decidedly refreshing. Brian put his hands up and said he made the wrong call. He told the boys to play it like a test match and defend the lead, consequently they tried to hold on instead of playing the game-plan that was having such success already. He admitted that this was a lesson learned, hoepfully we can close teams down now.

He also pointed out that at Saracens we played "suicide rugby" in a bid to get the four-try win that we needed to keep any hopes in the PG cup alive. Since then we have tried to take that great attacking endeavour and balance it with savvy defence. Every game since has been one-step closer to the "balanced" approach that will take us forward.

Brian Smith

I can confirm now that Brian Smith is definitely Australian. I was delighted to hear him use the phrase "fair dinkum" in open dialogue. Sadly Toby didn't manage a single "Cor Blimey" or "Stroike a Loight" but it was the only blot on his copy-book for the evening. Brian said he's having a great time at Irish and is generally happy with the team's progress so far. He is very proud and impressed with Toby who he is tipping to be England forwards coach for the RWC in 2011! The pair seem to get on well with Toby enjoying a good few cracks about a certain international result last Saturday.

It was, as I've said, a fun evening, you came away feeling that the club is in great hands. Their confidence and belief is palpable, it's very difficult not to come away with the feeling that we're just going to win and win. Remember, though, this is Irish, we've been confident before and it rarely comes to anything. After the Open Day I "believed", now I'm just really, really happy and looking forward to watching this lot play the way they and ther coaches want to.

We live, my friends, in interesting times.

Many thanks to Brian and Toby for giving up their evening for us, and to the LISC for organising yet another top night.