Irish pip tame Tigers

By Mike Hill
May 4 2003

London Irish inflicted a 20 - 19 defeat on the Tigers to record their first ever league win at Welford Road. It was painful viewing at the end and hard to believe that this side has fallen so far from the lofty peaks of the past two years.

With rumblings of discontent amongst sections of the squad and Rod Kafer off to Saracens at the end of the year it is clear that a major change is in the air. This season can't finish soon enough if I have to witness many more games like this one. Tigers were average to poor in nearly every department and faced an Irish side that was totally committed and fighting for it's very survival.

The Irish tackling was immense and with the exception of Freddie Tigers found it near impossible to break the gain line. The game started well with Stimpson surging on to a flat pass from McMullen and slicing through the Irish defence to give Tigers an early lead. Stimpson missed the conversion and Irish soon replied through the boot of Mark Mapletoft who controlled the game well for the visitors.

After four penalties had given the Irish a 12 -5 lead Tigers struck back with a well worked try for John Holtby, his first for the club. Their good work was undone minutes later when a poor box kick from Harry Ellis gave Irish an overlap and prop Mike Worsley went over in the corner. Geordan Murphy kicked a drop goal from halfway on the stroke of half time to narrow the deficit to 17 - 13.

Apart from two Stimpson penalties and one for Mapletoft neither side produced very much of note in the second half and Tigers seemed to lack any sense of urgency until it was too late. A final surge towards the visitors 22 ended in a sliced left footed drop goal attempt by Ellis which dropped agonisingly short. Why Geordan or McMullen wasn't lined up behind the young scrum half for a far easier attempt is anyone's guess?

So the Irish won and Tigers lost their second home league fixture since December 97. That glorious record is now irrelevant, that was the past and the present is far more worrying. A major shake up is required before next season if we are not to see a repeat of our current malaise. A leader in the back line needs to be signed since at present we have far too many players unwilling to take charge.

My Man of the Match was Will Skinner who tackled superbly was quick to the breakdown and showed excellent hands. In fact he reminded me of watching a certain young flanker from Nottingham make his first couple of starts and he turned out allright.

With European Cup rugby now looking less likely next season we have to console ourselves with the chance of going to Bucharest and Spain in the Parker Pen. That seems very likely now after all we would have to win three games to win the Wildcard play-offs and the final is at the Stoop.

Next stop Gloucester away oh dear……………