No Luck For The Oirish Again

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By Vicky_C
March 12 2005

And so a virtually full strength London Irish came to a wet and windy Welford Road to face a Tigers team decimated by international call ups and looking to bounce back from the defeat at Frankins Gardens 2 weeks ago.

Irish must have fancied their chances against a Tigers side so weakened that John Wells was struggling to find 22 fit players to turn out.

Neither side started well, and there was some careful probing in the first couple of minutes. Alex Tuilagi showed some great skill to keep the first Irish penalty in play which Vesty returned with interest.

Despite the number of absentees, the line out and scrum seemed rock solid and play continued to see saw between both sides.

Healey had been drafted in to play fly half, a position that he hasn’t really played in for a while, and he slowly began to get into the game although his early kicks failed to find touch. He punted a great kick from well inside his 22 which bounced clearly in field, only to be caught by Gustard who had one foot clearly in touch.

Unbelievably, the touch judge seemed to rule it out on the full and gave a line out to Irish back where Healey had kicked from, much to both his and Johnno’s disgust.
Irish began to press forward but Leicester showed some good defence and Everitt attempted a drop goal which sailed just to the left of the upright.

Both sides continued to probe, again Irish pressed forward only to run into the brick wall also known as Alex Tuilagi and the attack was stopped dead in its tracks.

There were ironic cheers from the Crumbie when Austin finally found his kicking boots and found an excellent touch deep in the Irish half. The driving maul began to get going and made steady progress up field. A promising move eventually forced Irish to concede a penalty in front of their own posts which Vesty duly converted.

Leicester continued to try and go for the scores which they needed and from a turnover, Healey hoofed up field which was chased by Alex Tuilagi. He failed to make the first tackle but got up and sprinted back to make the next tackle as Irish tried to counter.

Leicester began to put together some nice phases of play but they just couldn’t get the continuity and consistency going and nothing much came from them.
Irish gave away another penalty for coming in at the side, but Vesty was unable to convert. The match continued to swing between the two sides, Irish pressed forward again only to give away turnover ball when 7m from the Tigers line.

Tigers were lucky to escape seconds later when Bemand’s kick was charged down and Healey managed to hack the ball away.

Irish came back again and Tigers were rescued when Horak threw the ball to Strudwick who failed to score with the try line begging. The referee came back for a penalty from an earlier offence which Everitt converted.

Things didn’t look good for Leicester when Back went down injured following a line out and was forced to leave the field on 31 minutes to be replaced by Luke Abraham.

Leicester pressed forward again and the deadlock was broken with a piece of pure magic from Austin Healey. The drift defence was pushing Leicester left along the line, and a subtle show and go put Healey through and he put a floated pass out to Alex Tuilagi who juggled the ball and squeezed over in the corner. Vesty failed with the conversion from the difficult angle.

The second half started at a furious pace when Irish broke forward almost from the first attack only to have the ball squirt out of a tackle and for Penney to knock on with the try line begging. The resulting scrum was very poor and Gibson made some very hard yards and some beautiful Healey footwork gave Leicester some breathing space.

Abraham started to gain some confidence and began to make some good tackles. The forwards decided that route 1 looked the better option and began to work their way up field only to get turned over from another promising position.

Will Johnson did some great work on the floor throughout the game and a great snaffle created a chance for Hipkiss to score, which was rescued by the Irish defence.

Another penalty conceded by Leicester resulted in Everitt hitting the post. Healey then almost turned into the villain of the piece by trying to run out of defence and flinging a pass wide which Tuilagi dropped. Tigers almost turned over the resulting scrum but instead, Irish got a penalty which Everitt did convert.

Both teams rang the changes between the 55th and 60th minutes and Leicester brought on Chuter, Brett Deacon and Broadfoot. The back line was shuffled, Healey moving to the wing and Broadfoot took over at 10.

Vesty was solid all night and Broadfoot didn’t look phased despite the closeness of the scores. Lloyd squandered another good chance when he opted to chip Horak instead of passing inside to Gibson.

Horak tried to clear Irish lines a couple of minutes later only to be charged down by Tuilagi and Luke Abraham found himself in just the right place to pick up from the bounce and charge over for the score which Broadfoot converted.

Again Leicester squandered another opportunity as Healey created a beautiful break only for Tuilagi to drop the ball from what can only be described as a lack of concentration.

Irish never gave up but the luck didn’t go their way when they knocked on with the try line begging a couple of minutes before the end when they could have salvaged the losing bonus.

It wasn’t pretty, but the win was just what the Tigers wanted in the circumstances.

The scrum and line out were solid all night, Will Johnson and Luke Abraham were very impressive. Alex Tuilagi was everywhere, but my MOTM goes to Daryl Gibson.


Leicester: S Vesty; D Hipkiss (R Broadfoot 62), L Lloyd, D Gibson, A Tuilagi; A Healey, S Bemand; M Holford, J Buckland (G Chuter 58), D Morris, M Johnson (capt), L Deacon, H Tuilagi (B Deacon 61), N Back (L Abraham 35), W Johnson.

Scorers: Tries: A Tuilagi, Abraham Cons: Broadfoot Pen: Vesty.


London Irish: M Horak; D Shabbo, R Penney (N Mordt 72), M Catt, J Bishop; B Everitt, P Hodgson; N Hatley, A Flavin (D Paice 79), R Hardwick (D Wheatley 48), N Kennedy, R Strudwick (capt), P Gustard (D Danaher 60), K Dawson, R Reid (K Roche 54-60, 79).

London Irish: Pen: Everitt (2).


My MOTM: Daryl Gibson