Oirish Preview

By Henry Harman
November 7 2003

This weekend sees the visit of London Irish to struggling Sarries. Irish have surprised many with their strong start to the season........

Good victories over Gloucester, Leeds and Rotherham at Madstad and on the road at Northampton and a gutsy performance to steal the win at Edgley Park against Sale last week sees the ‘Thames Valley South Africans’ sitting 4th in the ZP, 9 points ahead of Sarries who are still yet to register their first bonus point.

London Irish’s strength is in the co-ordination and familiarity that they have with each other. Many raised their eyebrows when over the summer they only recruited Canadian Number 8 Phil Murphy to their ranks. Many tipped Irish would be down with Rotherham propping up the table come the end of the season. After all what do a handful of half-decent club-players and Bok ‘mercenaries’ offer compared to the super-star-studded squads of Sarries, Northampton and others? The simple answer is that they know how to play together; they’ve been doing so for what seems like decades! They have experience and leadership running throughout the team and as much as anything else, a bit of pride in the shirt; something Sarries have sometimes been accused of lacking.

Irish have a big, strong pack that’ll fancy their chances against a weakened Sarries 8, even without their War-Horse No8 O’Sheasby who’s suffered a nasty eye injury. They are also without former Saracens ‘Favourite’ (!) Mark Mapletoft who had been pulling the creative strings for most of the season, the more than able Barry Everitt starts at 10 for another week. Outside they have the ever-dangerous ‘flat pint of Guinness’ (according to the announcer at Madstad) Paul Sackey whose 1 on 1 with Del-boy Haughton should be fun. You know who else worries me? Bloody Michael Horak, very difficult to put on the floor, he should have a good time with the rather over-generous Sarries defence!

A big, big performance is required of the Men In Black this weekend. They’ve done very little to impress this year but will be feeling slightly better for their win over ZP whipping boys Rotherham.