Lambs to the Slaughter
Baa!
By BrianC
September 7 2009
Our 2009/10 season has kicked off with a game against Saracens at the now traditional London Double Header at Twickenham.
Before getting to the match itself I must pay full credit to Premier Rugby for the way they seem to be getting their act together with regards to this event. It was evident as soon as we stepped off the train at Twickenham that this was by some way to be the biggest ever LDH. The crowd of just under sixty eight thousand speaks for itself. A more concerted effort at marketing this event has paid off. The benign weather helped. It is now turning into one of those days that you pencil into your calendar as soon as it is announced.
This game was a "home" fixture for Sarries. Fair play to them, they made every effort to make the ground theirs for the day. Before the game we were "treated" to their new song sung by their team and Right Said Fred, Stand up for the Saracens. At this stage I sent a text to an Ulster based friend of mine telling him he'd feel right at home. “Typical”, the response came, “They can't even think up their own song”. By the end of the game, in the wake of defeat and having heard it played innumerable times, it had lost all novelty. I don't think the Ulster boys have much to worry about.
As usual my match notes are a largely incomprehensible collection of scribbles so I'll apologise in advance for any mistakes here.
Early exchanges were pretty even. Sarries were first on the scoreboard with a penalty after two minutes. We evened the score some seven minutes later. In my notes I have written "we look good". It just goes to show how wrong you can be. We weren't to trouble the scoreboard again until the 57th minute.
The game now turned firmly and as it turned out decisively in Sarries favour. On twenty minutes we were pinged after losing our own lineout. Coetzee came into the side of the ensuing ruck. Now perhaps it was that some players were distracted by JFK moaning to the referee, perhaps it was early season rustiness. Whatever the cause our players made the cardinal mistake of taking their eyes off the ball. Glen Jackson, the sharpest cookie on the pitch by far and later justifiably named man of the match, seized the opportunity and ran though our sleepwalking defence to touch down. He converted this and soon after made a long penalty. We were 13 – 3 down, deservedly so but this despite having had the lions share of possession and territory.
Things looked even bleaker as half time approached. With the help of what I felt were a couple of questionable refereeing decisions we'd gone from a decent attacking position on their 22 to our own. A couple of missed tackles saw Sarries almost on our line and our defence stretched. Ever alert Jackson sent a beautifully weighted crossfield kick to Saull who had the easiest of put downs. Fortunately they missed the conversion and a subsequent drop goal attempt. We went into half time "only" 18 – 3 down.
The second half started unremarkably. New signing Ryan Lamb missed his second and third penalty attempts of the day. Frankly this is a debut he would rather forget. I don't know if it was nerves or something else but it could well be argued that his poor kicking, from both place and hand, cost us the game.
Both teams were down to fourteen men on 53 minutes after a handbag session. Delon and Shalk Brits were sent for ten minutes rest. Four minutes later we at last scored some points. My notes say "18 – 6, too little, too late." That may not have been the case. Sarries soon lost another man after referee Pearson eventually tired of them killing the ball in rucks. Soon after which Thompstone looked through only to be pulled up for a forward pass. Our, now one man, advantage did however tell. We turned the resulting scrum. From ours we then managed to get over the line courtesy of George Stowers. The straightforward conversion was missed. Score 18 – 11 with 60 minutes on the clock.
Lamb was pulled off after this. My thought at the time, one I held in common with many around me, was that he should have been replaced much earlier. We'll never know what might have been the end result had that happened but we certainly looked brighter after he was replaced.
The pressure was now pretty well all from us. Delon brought the score to 18 – 14 with eight minutes remaining. That was to be the final score but not before, with two minutes left on the clock, we squandered a glorious try scoring opportunity with a five to two overlap on the left wing. It was not to be our day.
This was one of those games so typical of the early season. It was a scrappy, disjointed affair. We lost through a combination of our own naivety and complacency. That, plus the fact that we faced a Sarries team who, under our old player-coach Doctor V, seemed to have our game plan worked out and to be hungrier for the points.
Ryan Lamb will surely bounce back from his nightmarish debut. Hopefully he'll do this soon but his performance yesterday must be a cause for concern. Our handling let us down at crucial times. Before Bob came on the field we appeared to be lacking in direction. Some of our running patterns, which must have looked decent on the training field, fell apart as soon as we found ourselves running at sixteen stone of super fit Boer beefcake. It was unsatisfactory in many ways, not least the result.
What I will take from this day is that on a different day, with a different fly half / referee / tactics / substitution policy / game plan we could easily have won. We will learn lessons from this and bounce back. This vintage of London Irish team is too good to do otherwise.
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As you said not one of LI best performances and yet another game of 2-halves.
Overall, with the exception of PH imho most of the team had a bad day at the office. Pre-season rustiness or not much improvement required by players and coaches. Lets take lambs to the slaughter just yet, he knows he can do a lot better and appeared on occassions on saturday to be a class-act in the making!
Quote:Lamb was pulled off after this.
Some people get all the luck
Bboonie xxx
Not changing much then?
Good 2nd half performance from your boys gave us a real test.. Good luck for the rest of the season
I, for one, came away mightily encouraged by our potential if not our performance, on the day.
Lamb, although no doubt as disappointed with his kicking game as we supporters were, showed real class and ability with long cut out passes.
Sorry to have missed you, BC.
The future is bright and green!
Bring on Glaws and the Pests.
Ramsey: “Marsh, if you don’t work hard, I’m going to pull you off at half-time.”
Marsh: “Blimey, boss! At Manchester City all we get is a cup of tea and an orange!”
Ramsay did NOT laugh and Marsh never played for England again.
Most of my previous moans are still there:
- cr@p stadium, small seats souless concrete, over priced food and drink (£2.50 for a small coffee FFS)
- Police - why? You never see them at other GP grounds why are they so prominent here
- Touts
- People disinterested in the game. This year it was a "bloodbank" of Quins fans who rolled in 5 minutes before the end of the 1st half and proceeded to talk loudly about every f'king thing but the bleedin' rugby.
To that end I left after our game. Not that interested in Wasps v Quins. What was the score?
report by a Mr O'Gorman -London Irish trialist at the age of 9 - unsuccessful