Irish fail to get annual KP win
By Leipziger
February 21 2010
In another game of two halves at KP, the Falcons could have beaten London Irish at home for the first time in almost five years, but instead had to settle for a fourth Premiership draw of the year following probably our best second half of the home season.
A first half in which there was precious little of the “kind support” the announcer thanked us for due to another dreadful Newcastle performance made way for a great second half in which only a forward pass denied us the win.
The Falcons made only two changes to the team that started at Northampton, with Will Welch and Pete Browne coming in to form a new back row with Brent Wilson. Although Irish went on the attack initially, the home scrum held up well thanks to some great work by Jon Golding and Jimmy Gopperth had two chances to give us the lead, though both penalties went wide.
On a night of strange refereeing decisions as Rob Debney repeatedly allowed Irish to infringe at the breakdown with immunity, it was no surprise that the visitors' first try, after 20 minutes, was controversial. A rolling maul collapsed over our line, and the referee went to the TMO. On the big screen there was only one angle from which the ball was visible, and it looked like it had been dropped by George Stowers. Surely the only decision was which team should receive the scrum?
But no, the try was awarded, and though Tom Homer couldn't convert, the lead was increased as Steffon Armitage powered his way over and this time the full-back added the extra two points.
The Falcons' game was characterised by slow ball from Micky Young and wasted possession – I promised someone that I would put in this report what I shouted in the first half “kick the ball away, don't chase it and let them run back at us, that'll help us win” or similar – and though at least Gopperth's first successful penalty just before half-time gave us hope, it wasn't much as Irish had dominated overall. The loss of Charlie Amesbury to injury early on didn't make things any easier.
Another poor home game then it seemed, and I can only think the lack of boos at the end of the first half was because nobody could even be bothered to do that.
The second half was shocking in that as I've said it was probably the best we've seen at Kingston Park all season, as the Falcons played with an enthusiasm greatly lacking in the first half. There were a lot of silly errors, not least that which allowed Irish to escape with a draw, but still the visitors would have been relieved with that at the end.
Gopperth kicked two penalties to reduce the deficit to just three points and Irish were rattled, seeming content to just defend as we had in the first half. Danny Williams looked more dangerous than he has for most of the season and but for some loose passes and slow ball our backs might have been able to find a way through.
With a quarter of an hour left, Gopperth hit the equalising penalty from long range and now our thoughts turned to a possible win, but the quick Irish defence negated any possibility of a drop-goal and when Alex Tait did finally get through a gap and steamed for the line, he was (rightly) pulled back for Young's pop pass being forward. Gutting!
Any hope of a win evaporated when Tait inexplicably kicked for touch with a minute to go, giving Irish the lineout and of course the probability that they would just run down the clock and kick the ball out to save the draw. And that is indeed what happened.
I think four draws in one season is the Premiership record, so we've now equalled that for whatever it is worth. I guess the team deserves credit for coming back from 0-12 down and getting a draw but it is disappointing that we couldn't get more, especially with Leeds having won on Friday night and the bottom places in the table getting tighter. Fortunately we are still only three points behind Bath in sixth, so a top half position is still a possibility but only if we start winning again, quickly.
The backs really need sorting as well, Micky Young shouldn't need to look around the whole of the pitch once he gets the ball out before passing it, so either he needs to be more aware or he and Gopperth need to work very hard on understanding each other. Otherwise our strong pack is just going to waste most of the time.
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This isn't the first time this season, nor even this month, where the ref allows blatant ruck infringements & does nothing about them. The amount of bodies going over the top was reminiscent of the Somme circa 1915. Once more, we needed a bit of streetwise edge & not always rely on MY to to be the enforcer, at some point one of the front seven has got to swipe his oppo, the closest we got last night was a friendly exchange of slaps between Golding & Sowers.
A good second half showed what the team can do to raise the temprament of the crowd, shame those performances have been so few & far between.
Touchy, small point of order, if the ref allows a quick penalty it doesn't have to be from the exact point he indicated, just in front of the ref & on or behind the mark, the advantage being the quick, rather than posistion. Just another example of pernickity refs demanding exacting standards in some areas & not others.
Hey ho.
I would suggest that very rarely does a quick tap comply with these requirements.
Up to the player to take it from the correct position.
a) Micky Young persists with slow ball or is otherwise too caviliar with sniping runs that inevitably end up with little or no territory gained. Gary Armstrong was a master at this tactic but he was IMHO also in a different class to our current no 9.
b) Tulip seems to prefer solo runs rather than passing to outside centre or other players around ?. He is too slight of build to make any impression and opponents have sussed what he will likely do ?
The pitch resembled a horse field and well done Jimmy for the second half points especially the long kick to equalise.
I agree that either Micky Young changes his game or Batesy uses Hall Charlton more often
What other explanation could there be that Bates has taken a perfectly good scrum half that was turning into a potential England player and butchered his game so much in 12 months that the supporters are now calling for Hall Charlton to be back in the team. The very same Hall Charlton who makes a snail look like Usain Bolt with a firecracker up his @rse.
As for Gopperth not being a a good game manager, that's arguable, but it doesn't always have to be the 10 calling the shots, it makes more sense for Tulip to do it as the more established player in the team. As for Tulip being too slight, not sure I agree. If you can't get the ball away cleanly, don't throw crud passes - that's why the central chanel gets attacked so frequently.