London Irish v Tigers Match Report
By TigerR
March 26 2012
IT’S A CRACKER By TigerR London Irish 32 – 41 Leicester On their return from Six Nations duty Dan Cole, Geoff Parling, Manu Tuilagi and Ben Youngs were named in the starting line-up for Tigers, with Tom Croft and Martin Castrogiovanni among the replacements. Toby Flood, took over from George Ford at fly-half. Surely Tigers would be too strong for a London Irish team showing patchy form. However the sun was out, the pitch very firm, and there was only a gentle zephyr.
These were ideal conditions for the London Irish backs to cause mayhem, as they had in the autumn at Welford Road where Irish had grabbed a draw with a late try. Also there was a big crowd of nearly 21,000 in the MadStad celebrating St Patrick’s Day (a week late) and cheering the Irish players on.
Irish started with high energy and the game was only a minute old when Tigers were penalised for pulling down a maul close to halfway. Tom Homer, who otherwise had an excellent afternoon with the boot, was wide with this first kick a goal. But Irish took the lead when he made no mistake five minutes later from in front of the posts after Thomas Waldrom overbalanced at a ruck.
Irish then threatened the Tigers line when Dan Bowden darted through a gap and fed Joe Ansbro, who ignored an overlap on his outside and was tackled from behind. Irish maintained possession and pressure and this resulted in Bowden landing a drop goal with a referee indicating a penalty to Irish to move the hosts 6-0 ahead.
Tigers rallied to enter the Irish 22 for what seemed the first time and the forwards kept it tight with Youngs and Marcos Ayerza going close. A series of 5m scrums followed and Irish were twice penalised by referee Dean Richards. Tigers chose to scrum as they had the Irish pack in trouble. As they rumbled forward the ball popped out in error or perhaps by design and Youngs draw two defenders to put Flood over next to the posts. Shockingly Flood's conversion was charged down by the live-wire Welsh scrum half, Darren Allinson, to preserve the Irish lead at 6-5 after 25 minutes.
Three minutes later Tigers took the lead after more pressure on the Irish line. Waldrom was tackled just short of the line and Salvi picked up quickly and dived over to give Tigers a 12-6 lead after the successful conversion.
Any sense of superiority was soon dispelled as Tigers were penalised at the next scrum and the penalty was kicked and then Bryn Evans finished an excellent dart through the middle of a line out by Allinson to put the Exiles back in front.
Tigers began the second half well, keeping possession and Irish eventuallytransgressed at a ruck and Flood landed the penalty to leave Tigers 16-15 behind. Flood then kicked Tigers into an 18-16 lead in the 53rd minute after a penalty at another scrum.
Irish hit back straight from the restart by claiming the kick-off. Tom Homer then picked a line through the heart of the Tigers defence to score by the posts to put Irish 23-18 ahead.
London Irish were next penalised for handling in a ruck and Flood kicked his third penalty of the second half and Tigers powered back into the lead with 20 minutes remaining when Billy Twelvetrees sliced through the Irish defence on halfway, drew the full back and gave Tuilagi on his outside a clear run to the line to put Tigers 28-23 ahead.
Flood and Homer then exchanged penalties as Tigers led 31-26 as the match entered the last 10 minutes. Homer cut the Tigers lead to 31-29 with a long penalty. And then he put Irish back in front with four minutes left with a kick from nearly the same spot.
Tigers kicked short in a move similar to the the one that beat Saracens in the 2010 final but Hamilton knocked on. However Tigers ensured no advantage accrued giving Irish the put-in at a scrum they didn’t want and the dominant Tigers scrum won another penalty that Flood landed to put Tigers back in front.
From the kick off Tigers managed to kick the ball into the Irish half but gave up possession. Irish chased the game tapping penalties but a determined Tigers' defence pressed and forced a handling mistake. Replacement Croft pounced on the loose ball and raced under the posts for a bonus point try. The resulting conversion was the last action of a tense, thrilling match.
This result was tough on the home team and their supporters. Something that could also be said of the result between the two teams at Welford Road.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:03:31:16:01:42 by Tiggs.
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Many thanks Rex