London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
By Munchkin
September 29 2009
I’ve been a London Irish fan from even before I was born. Mummy says when she was pregnant, I used to kick in time with the drummers at the MadStad. Now, we sit in the East Stand so I can have a bash on the drums. I’ve got Griff and Charlie and bisach sorted: I just march up to them and hold out my hands and they give me the beaters.
It would be pretty cool if Irish could learn to do that – go up to an opposing player expecting to be given what they want (the ball) and then Irish would win all their remaining games this season. It would be kind of boring though, and Sunday’s match was anything but.
The excitement started on our trip to Reading from central London. We took the 11:42 train from Paddington to Oxford… except it caught on fire even before it got to West Drayton. Silly train. We all had to evacuate the train (Mummy had to pass me down to Foggy as it was too far even for me to jump!) and there were lots and lots of fire engines and the fireman let me turn on the water at the hydrant then they put out the fire but the train wasn’t allowed to move and we had to go to Slough by bus.
We didn’t get to Reading till nearly half past two and we were all worried we’d miss kick off.
We got to our seats just as the teams were being announced and then we held a minute’s silence – which is a really long time when you’re only just three, and Mummy made me take my hat off too, so the sun got in my eyes – to remember Air Commodore Paddy Forsythe, who had been both Chairman and President of London Irish before I was even born.
It was very hot and sunny in the East Stand so I was glad to put my hat back on. The drummers started making lots of noise because within three minutes of kick off, Sailosi Tagicakibau had scored a try! Ryan Lamb didn’t convert it but I wasn’t too worried as he didn’t land his first kick against Gloucester either and then he kicked lots of points after that. LI 5 – 0 Wasps.
Soon after that, London Irish were penalised for not rolling away and they said they would kick from the halfway line. Somebody who looked like he wanted to be a prop (his head was taped but he wasn’t bald and all his hair was sticking up funny) kicked the ball and Caimh announced that Danny Cipriani had given Wasps their first three points, bringing the score to 5 – 3. I didn’t believe Caimh, no flyhalf has hair that silly. Look at Danny Carter. Look at Ryan Lamb. Look at Johnny Wilkinson. It must’ve been a mistake.
Ryan Lamb (the one with the not-silly haircut) was busy for the next few minutes, running here, sidestepping there, kicking the ball back and forth with Wasps. Eventually (after my first equal favourite player, Steffon Armitage, stole the Wasps’ lineout ball!) London Irish were penalised again – halfway, again! – and the man with the silly hair (perhaps he’s from the new Fame movie and it’s a sweatband?) missed for Wasps, 5 – 3 still. Caimh announced it was Danny Cipriani. Maybe he wants Martin Johnson to notice him again and that’s why he has the funny hairdo?
If Martin Johnson was watching, he might not have been impressed because Danny Cipriani missed his next kick as well. That’s ok because Irish kept getting pinged by Mr Pearson (Mummy says I must respect the referee, even if he didn’t seem to see lots of blatant Wasps offside play) and eventually Danny Cipriani kicked the next one to put Wasps in the lead, 5 – 6. He shouldn’t have done that because Ryan Lamb knew Johnno might be watching too, and he intercepted a Wasps pass, threw the ball to Adam Thompstone and Irish passed and passed and passed and then Ryan Lamb got it back and dropped a goal a minute later to regain the lead, 8 – 6.
Wasps might’ve have the restart but soon afterwards London Irish stole more of Wasps’ lineout ball so Wasps tried coming in at the side to get it back but Mr Pearson told them off and Ryan Lamb kicked another three points for Irish, 11 – 6.
Everyone for Irish was having a really good game. The forwards were making Wasps’ scrum go backwards and other places it oughtn’t, they were stealing lineout ball, putting pressure on everywhere, Sailosi Tagicakibau kept wriggling out of tackles (he made it look like he was being tickled because I squirm like that when someone tickles me!) and when the naughty Wasps player tackled Maps too high, Mr Pearson saw that too and Ryan Lamb kicked three more points for Irish, 14 – 6.
There were still nearly 15 minutes till half time but I thought Irish had already won this game, so I went to say hello to Mr Doyle
and when I got back, I had a bash on the drums and then I sat with PANSY, her Mummy and sachbi. I kept looking for Eek in case he’d make me and PANSY more balloon swords but Eek was playing his sousaphone as Simon didn’t come to the match with his trumpet.
I was right about Irish winning the match. You can read the official match report at but what you really need to know is that Wasps only scored 3 more points (I’m not counting the seven points they got when Mr Pearson said Adam Thompstone had done something naughty and sent Adam to the naughty step for ten minutes and gave Wasps a penalty try) and Irish got 14 more points to win 28 – 16.
80 minutes is a lot of rugby when you’ve watched so much happen in the first twenty-five minutes of the match and there are girls to flirt with and beverages to drink and snacks to eat and Digger to hug and Eek to make balloons (well, maybe another time) and drums to bash and cookies I helped Mummy make to share with our friends and and and… I think Irish are going to win lots more matches this season and that will make Mummy and me and our friends very happy, even if I don’t watch every single minute of it.
Our trip home was lots faster as that train didn’t catch on fire but Mummy said that London Irish have. Silly Mummy, you have to put fires out and we want Irish to keep on winning as well as they are!!! I wouldn’t mind the nee-naws though...
The excitement started on our trip to Reading from central London. We took the 11:42 train from Paddington to Oxford… except it caught on fire even before it got to West Drayton. Silly train. We all had to evacuate the train (Mummy had to pass me down to Foggy as it was too far even for me to jump!) and there were lots and lots of fire engines and the fireman let me turn on the water at the hydrant then they put out the fire but the train wasn’t allowed to move and we had to go to Slough by bus.
We didn’t get to Reading till nearly half past two and we were all worried we’d miss kick off.
We got to our seats just as the teams were being announced and then we held a minute’s silence – which is a really long time when you’re only just three, and Mummy made me take my hat off too, so the sun got in my eyes – to remember Air Commodore Paddy Forsythe, who had been both Chairman and President of London Irish before I was even born.
It was very hot and sunny in the East Stand so I was glad to put my hat back on. The drummers started making lots of noise because within three minutes of kick off, Sailosi Tagicakibau had scored a try! Ryan Lamb didn’t convert it but I wasn’t too worried as he didn’t land his first kick against Gloucester either and then he kicked lots of points after that. LI 5 – 0 Wasps.
Soon after that, London Irish were penalised for not rolling away and they said they would kick from the halfway line. Somebody who looked like he wanted to be a prop (his head was taped but he wasn’t bald and all his hair was sticking up funny) kicked the ball and Caimh announced that Danny Cipriani had given Wasps their first three points, bringing the score to 5 – 3. I didn’t believe Caimh, no flyhalf has hair that silly. Look at Danny Carter. Look at Ryan Lamb. Look at Johnny Wilkinson. It must’ve been a mistake.
Ryan Lamb (the one with the not-silly haircut) was busy for the next few minutes, running here, sidestepping there, kicking the ball back and forth with Wasps. Eventually (after my first equal favourite player, Steffon Armitage, stole the Wasps’ lineout ball!) London Irish were penalised again – halfway, again! – and the man with the silly hair (perhaps he’s from the new Fame movie and it’s a sweatband?) missed for Wasps, 5 – 3 still. Caimh announced it was Danny Cipriani. Maybe he wants Martin Johnson to notice him again and that’s why he has the funny hairdo?
If Martin Johnson was watching, he might not have been impressed because Danny Cipriani missed his next kick as well. That’s ok because Irish kept getting pinged by Mr Pearson (Mummy says I must respect the referee, even if he didn’t seem to see lots of blatant Wasps offside play) and eventually Danny Cipriani kicked the next one to put Wasps in the lead, 5 – 6. He shouldn’t have done that because Ryan Lamb knew Johnno might be watching too, and he intercepted a Wasps pass, threw the ball to Adam Thompstone and Irish passed and passed and passed and then Ryan Lamb got it back and dropped a goal a minute later to regain the lead, 8 – 6.
Wasps might’ve have the restart but soon afterwards London Irish stole more of Wasps’ lineout ball so Wasps tried coming in at the side to get it back but Mr Pearson told them off and Ryan Lamb kicked another three points for Irish, 11 – 6.
Everyone for Irish was having a really good game. The forwards were making Wasps’ scrum go backwards and other places it oughtn’t, they were stealing lineout ball, putting pressure on everywhere, Sailosi Tagicakibau kept wriggling out of tackles (he made it look like he was being tickled because I squirm like that when someone tickles me!) and when the naughty Wasps player tackled Maps too high, Mr Pearson saw that too and Ryan Lamb kicked three more points for Irish, 14 – 6.
There were still nearly 15 minutes till half time but I thought Irish had already won this game, so I went to say hello to Mr Doyle
and when I got back, I had a bash on the drums and then I sat with PANSY, her Mummy and sachbi. I kept looking for Eek in case he’d make me and PANSY more balloon swords but Eek was playing his sousaphone as Simon didn’t come to the match with his trumpet.
I was right about Irish winning the match. You can read the official match report at but what you really need to know is that Wasps only scored 3 more points (I’m not counting the seven points they got when Mr Pearson said Adam Thompstone had done something naughty and sent Adam to the naughty step for ten minutes and gave Wasps a penalty try) and Irish got 14 more points to win 28 – 16.
80 minutes is a lot of rugby when you’ve watched so much happen in the first twenty-five minutes of the match and there are girls to flirt with and beverages to drink and snacks to eat and Digger to hug and Eek to make balloons (well, maybe another time) and drums to bash and cookies I helped Mummy make to share with our friends and and and… I think Irish are going to win lots more matches this season and that will make Mummy and me and our friends very happy, even if I don’t watch every single minute of it.
Our trip home was lots faster as that train didn’t catch on fire but Mummy said that London Irish have. Silly Mummy, you have to put fires out and we want Irish to keep on winning as well as they are!!! I wouldn’t mind the nee-naws though...
London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 29/09/2009 08:19
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Re: London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Date: 29/09/2009 10:21
Very smart kid for a three year old 
.
Very enjoyable read.
.
Very enjoyable read.
Re: London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Posted by: AMS (IP Logged)
Date: 29/09/2009 10:47
Well, he had me taking notes as he dictated, you understand. Spell-check on the computer helps too!
Re: London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Posted by: Eek_the_Weeble (IP Logged)
Date: 29/09/2009 14:34
Best report ever
Re: London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Posted by: CippenhamIrish (IP Logged)
Date: 29/09/2009 15:09
Smashing report, shouldn't that be Speak and Spell check?
Re: London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Posted by: salmonwill (IP Logged)
Date: 29/09/2009 15:37
what a cracking report. Munchkin can we have lots more of these please.
Always good to know your ticklish as well
Always good to know your ticklish as well
Re: London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Posted by: What (IP Logged)
Date: 29/09/2009 16:04
Good report
Anyone have an idea of how the fire started and it would have been nice if the club delayed the kick off by 10 minutes for us who be stuck in the mess
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:09:29:16:27:56 by What.
Anyone have an idea of how the fire started and it would have been nice if the club delayed the kick off by 10 minutes for us who be stuck in the mess
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:09:29:16:27:56 by What.
Re: London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Posted by: AMS (IP Logged)
Date: 29/09/2009 16:20
Not sure but it seemed to be under the first carriage - AlecW has some pix he took when it was still burning (I was corralling the Munchkin at that point) which might give more clues.
Re: London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Posted by: antoinog (IP Logged)
Date: 30/09/2009 08:15
Brilliant report - I need the Munchkin to explain the penalties to me each week, he understands them a lot better then I.
Agree that Master Munchkin should be a regular reporter - he clearly brings us luck - but I hope the train incident was a one off - sounds like he might have engineered it to see the fire engines!!!
:-)
Agree that Master Munchkin should be a regular reporter - he clearly brings us luck - but I hope the train incident was a one off - sounds like he might have engineered it to see the fire engines!!!
:-)
Re: London’s burning: London Irish v Wasps
Posted by: Foggy-Balla (IP Logged)
Date: 30/09/2009 11:22
My favourite moment before the match came as I was taking the Munchkin away from the scene of the railway incident. I had told him that the Firemen had come in their nee-naws to rescue us.
Completely unprompted as we passed each Fireman he gave them a hug & in a very solemn tone said, “tach-yoo for rescuing us”
Faugh-a-Ballagh!
"Our prayer is 'God save Ireland' and pour blessings on her name!"
Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum
Completely unprompted as we passed each Fireman he gave them a hug & in a very solemn tone said, “tach-yoo for rescuing us”
Faugh-a-Ballagh!
"Our prayer is 'God save Ireland' and pour blessings on her name!"
Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum
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