Irish inflict third straight defeat on Sarries

By Jason Harris
October 4 2004

A sole Nicky Little penalty was all Sarries could muster in a dire contest at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday. Tries from Justin Bishop, Delon Armitage and Michael Horak saw the Exiles home, but with all the possession and territory enjoyed by the home side, it could and should have been a lot more.

Though the game started in whirlwind fashion with play going frenetically from end to end, neither side settled at all during the 80 minutes and it showed as balls were overthrown, dropped, kicks missed and discipline poor, especially from Sarries who had Raphael Ibanez and Simon Raiwalui sin-binned. Even though the conditions were difficult after heavy rain had fallen in Reading before the game at at half time, some of the handling on display was kindergarten stuff.

The first half hour had nothing at all to show for it bar a missed Barry Everitt penalty and it looked as if a try would never come. Everitt finally broke the deadlock with a penalty after Sarries infringed at a ruck for the umpteenth time during the first period.

The blow from Bishop's first try on 38 minutes taken as Irish finally made good of one of many overlaps they had during the match, was made worse by the withdrawal of Richard Hill who was injured as he tried to stifle the counter-attack at its source, only to go down in obvious pain clutching his left knee.

It doesn't look good for Sarries' most consistend player of the last decade as the initial diagnosis is a ruptured anterior curciate ligament, though this has yet to be confirmed by the club.

The second half was no better. Sarries tried to change things by introducing Nicky Little at half time after debutant outside half Ben J. Russell had a nervous and disappointing first outing; his kicking and decision making quite uncertain. But Little made no difference to the Sarries backline whick looked pedestrian throughout.

The home side's second try came towards the end of regulation time from a scrum on the Sarries 22. Replacement no8 and former Saracen Kieran Roche picke up and appeared to knock on, but the ball was snaeked into Kieran Dawson's hands and the Irish flanker drew the final man to send substitute wing Delon Armitage over in the corner.

The final try in injury time was a solo effort from Horak who gratefully picked up the pieces after Sarries fullback Robbie Kydd knocked on a Little chip ahead. Sarries' heads were down and by the time they realised they had to chase the Irish fullback, it was too late as he crossed under the posts. The conversion was kicked and the game over at 20-3.

Sarries have now lost three on the bounce and next weekend's game against Northampton - another side who started the season with two wins and then three defeats - takes on even greater importance. With a tricky visit to Kingston Park to follow, Sarries need to get back into the winning habit before the European campaign kicks off in Bayonne at the end of the month.