Things can only get better
By Props Are Not Stupid
April 27 2010
It does sound like a political slogan, but watching London Irish against Gloucester was even less exciting than the recent political debates, that is if you are a London Irish fan like me. For the cherries it was their final home game of a season that will not be remembered as one of their greatest either. Anyway, they packed Kingsholm to the rafters to see their team demolish the opposition.
Captain Tindall was followed by Eustace who was saying farewell to the local fans. Irish were receiving. Our first scrum was under pressure and we had no quick ball from it. As usual both sides were trying to see what they could get away with from the ref, Sean Davey. My notes say that players were allowed to lie on top of the ruck unpunished.
Mapusua is injured in the first few minutes and requires attention, it doesn’t look good as his left knee requires heavy bandage. Eventually he rejoins the game but Gloucester target him as a weakness in our defense. Robinson has a penalty 45 meters out, and in a sunny day with no wind he doesn’t usually miss, so it is 3-0 to the local team after 4 minutes.
Mapusua knocks on an easy pass, he looks in pain and really needs to get off. Although we were under pressure in the first two scrums, we manage to turn the third one 180 degrees. We get a penalty out of it and Malone misses his kick for about to metres to the “You are not singing anymore” chant of the local supporters.
Homer eventually comes for Maps after 12 minutes. It seems that we have the upper hand in the line out, but everywhere else it is all Gloucester. Their number 7 Qera is sin binned after holding to the tackled player on the ground and this time Tommy Homer goes for the kick and doesn’t miss. 3-3 after 19 minutes and we are playing against 14 players.
Robinson goes for a long kick to the corner where Rudd is defending, but he can’t gather and Vainikolo dives in for the try. Conversion is missed and it is 8-3 after 9 minutes.
Hewat doesn’t chase his own kicks and Delon is taken out while chasing the ball. There is a period of messy play that only favours the team that needs to run down the clock waiting for their binned flanker to come back.
Irish have a rare try scoring opportunity as they have 4 attackers against one single defender, but the chance is spoiled due to some messy passing.
Delon is being attended by our medical team for a few minutes exactly on the same spot where Gloucester need to take a penalty, the crowd get impatient and start booing Delon, something that would be a constant during the rest of the game. Eventually Delon moves, penalty is taken and Qera rejoins the game at 11-3 after 27 minutes.
There was a late his from Gibson to Robinson as he was kicking. I thought the options were penalty kick from where the penalty occurred or scrum from where the ball landed, but this time it was a penalty kick from where the ball landed that Robinson took with gusto. 14-3 after 29 minutes.
Delon can’t gather a simple pass from Hewat and the shed celebrated as if they had just scored a try.
Gibson gives another penalty away, this time for not releasing the tackled player, another 3 easy points for Glaws. It is 17-3 with 8 minutes to go.
Glaws try again exactly the same move that got them their first try, long kick to Vainikolo on the left who only has Rudd to beat, but this time he makes the tackle.
Delon loses his temper and gives away a penalty in front of the posts, so it is 20-3 after 35 minutes. I remember our last visit to Kingsholm where we were winning by a similar margin and we somehow managed to lose the game, but this time is different. I simply don’t see us scoring a try.
Back to the game, great move from Elvis beating two defenders, and offloads to Steff, who charges down and offloads to Homer, who gets isolated and goes to ground. The ball is kicked from his hands while he was holding it. While the Irish players were waiting for Davey to blow for the penalty he says play on and Simpson-Daniel runs the length of the pitch unopposed to score.
Exactly the same move happened a minute later, but we go to half time 27-3 down when it could have been a lot worse.
I wait in the long queue for drinks and I notice how about 4 people jump the queue a few places in front of me. I mention it to the people in front of me who say that I can confront them if I want, but they won’t as they do not want to start a riot. I find Gloucester people scary, I have been there three times now and the more I go the scarier I find them.
Second half starts and Irish enjoy territory and possession but seem unlikely to score. Glaws scrum is still very dominant, even against a front row of Alex, Danie and Faan. Delon returns from his sin bin and Jonathan Joseph replaces Rudd. I don’t fancy his chances against Vainikolo, but luckily for him Vainikolo has been replaced at half time by Sharples.
Irish have a very kickable penalty that they opt to kick to the corner. Thorpe receives at the front of the line out and a maul is formed. We have a penalty, a few more phases of play and we seem to have scored a try. Nobody knows who or why. It was at the opposite end of the pitch so I couldn’t see. Just in case some of you don’t know yet, it was Kieran Roche. The try came as such a surprise that it was hardly celebrated by the 200 London Irish supporters that were around me in the JS stand. It was something like: Have we scored? Really? We better look happy and wave the flag.
Funnily enough, we scored another two tries in the game and I have never seen our tries celebrated by so little timid applause. The only cheers coming from our area were the Ryan Lamb fan club girls sitting just behind me. The cheered the fact that Malone missed a dead cert conversion and Lamby was there for them to admire.
There seems to be no sense of direction from London Irish, scrum half passes right while fly half is running left and ball ends up awol. There is no sense of direction, it seems like a team of barbarians that have never trained together. My notes even talk about Steffon being stripped of a ball once.
Paice, Murphy, Garvey and Stowers came all at the same time to the pitch, so I hear a sigh of relieve from father of beast sitting next to me as his son has finished work for the day unharmed. A couple of minutes (and 5 scrums) later Alex is called back to work as Murphy gets himself in the bin. I also couldn’t see what happened as from my seat in the corner of the JS stand I could only see the tighthead’s side of the scrum, but the loosehead was going down in every single scrum. The scrum improved once Alex came back on, but the game didn’t.
The local party carried on as replacement prop Alex Dickinson scores unopposed after dummying to his right. I bet he is still telling all his mates about it, I know I would.
Armitage (Steffon) scores a try to leave the scores 34-15. Another missed conversion and another cold reception from the travelling support.
The last 20 minutes were painful to watch, even a last minute try and a partial win in the second half did not help. The team hugged in a circle while Lamb was taking (and missing) the last conversion of the day. The players timidly waved at us from the opposite end of the ground, thanking us for our support or apologising? Maybe a bit of both.
Anyway, this was Gloucester party and they celebrated. Gareth Delve was named player of the season and he was interviewed in the centre of the pitch. He is leaving the club to join some other Brits in Melbourne and we left for a quick drink at Teages bar opposite the ground. Luckily this time I didn’t have anyone vomiting on me there as it happened last time.
Mapusua is injured in the first few minutes and requires attention, it doesn’t look good as his left knee requires heavy bandage. Eventually he rejoins the game but Gloucester target him as a weakness in our defense. Robinson has a penalty 45 meters out, and in a sunny day with no wind he doesn’t usually miss, so it is 3-0 to the local team after 4 minutes.
Mapusua knocks on an easy pass, he looks in pain and really needs to get off. Although we were under pressure in the first two scrums, we manage to turn the third one 180 degrees. We get a penalty out of it and Malone misses his kick for about to metres to the “You are not singing anymore” chant of the local supporters.
Homer eventually comes for Maps after 12 minutes. It seems that we have the upper hand in the line out, but everywhere else it is all Gloucester. Their number 7 Qera is sin binned after holding to the tackled player on the ground and this time Tommy Homer goes for the kick and doesn’t miss. 3-3 after 19 minutes and we are playing against 14 players.
Robinson goes for a long kick to the corner where Rudd is defending, but he can’t gather and Vainikolo dives in for the try. Conversion is missed and it is 8-3 after 9 minutes.
Hewat doesn’t chase his own kicks and Delon is taken out while chasing the ball. There is a period of messy play that only favours the team that needs to run down the clock waiting for their binned flanker to come back.
Irish have a rare try scoring opportunity as they have 4 attackers against one single defender, but the chance is spoiled due to some messy passing.
Delon is being attended by our medical team for a few minutes exactly on the same spot where Gloucester need to take a penalty, the crowd get impatient and start booing Delon, something that would be a constant during the rest of the game. Eventually Delon moves, penalty is taken and Qera rejoins the game at 11-3 after 27 minutes.
There was a late his from Gibson to Robinson as he was kicking. I thought the options were penalty kick from where the penalty occurred or scrum from where the ball landed, but this time it was a penalty kick from where the ball landed that Robinson took with gusto. 14-3 after 29 minutes.
Delon can’t gather a simple pass from Hewat and the shed celebrated as if they had just scored a try.
Gibson gives another penalty away, this time for not releasing the tackled player, another 3 easy points for Glaws. It is 17-3 with 8 minutes to go.
Glaws try again exactly the same move that got them their first try, long kick to Vainikolo on the left who only has Rudd to beat, but this time he makes the tackle.
Delon loses his temper and gives away a penalty in front of the posts, so it is 20-3 after 35 minutes. I remember our last visit to Kingsholm where we were winning by a similar margin and we somehow managed to lose the game, but this time is different. I simply don’t see us scoring a try.
Back to the game, great move from Elvis beating two defenders, and offloads to Steff, who charges down and offloads to Homer, who gets isolated and goes to ground. The ball is kicked from his hands while he was holding it. While the Irish players were waiting for Davey to blow for the penalty he says play on and Simpson-Daniel runs the length of the pitch unopposed to score.
Exactly the same move happened a minute later, but we go to half time 27-3 down when it could have been a lot worse.
I wait in the long queue for drinks and I notice how about 4 people jump the queue a few places in front of me. I mention it to the people in front of me who say that I can confront them if I want, but they won’t as they do not want to start a riot. I find Gloucester people scary, I have been there three times now and the more I go the scarier I find them.
Second half starts and Irish enjoy territory and possession but seem unlikely to score. Glaws scrum is still very dominant, even against a front row of Alex, Danie and Faan. Delon returns from his sin bin and Jonathan Joseph replaces Rudd. I don’t fancy his chances against Vainikolo, but luckily for him Vainikolo has been replaced at half time by Sharples.
Irish have a very kickable penalty that they opt to kick to the corner. Thorpe receives at the front of the line out and a maul is formed. We have a penalty, a few more phases of play and we seem to have scored a try. Nobody knows who or why. It was at the opposite end of the pitch so I couldn’t see. Just in case some of you don’t know yet, it was Kieran Roche. The try came as such a surprise that it was hardly celebrated by the 200 London Irish supporters that were around me in the JS stand. It was something like: Have we scored? Really? We better look happy and wave the flag.
Funnily enough, we scored another two tries in the game and I have never seen our tries celebrated by so little timid applause. The only cheers coming from our area were the Ryan Lamb fan club girls sitting just behind me. The cheered the fact that Malone missed a dead cert conversion and Lamby was there for them to admire.
There seems to be no sense of direction from London Irish, scrum half passes right while fly half is running left and ball ends up awol. There is no sense of direction, it seems like a team of barbarians that have never trained together. My notes even talk about Steffon being stripped of a ball once.
Paice, Murphy, Garvey and Stowers came all at the same time to the pitch, so I hear a sigh of relieve from father of beast sitting next to me as his son has finished work for the day unharmed. A couple of minutes (and 5 scrums) later Alex is called back to work as Murphy gets himself in the bin. I also couldn’t see what happened as from my seat in the corner of the JS stand I could only see the tighthead’s side of the scrum, but the loosehead was going down in every single scrum. The scrum improved once Alex came back on, but the game didn’t.
The local party carried on as replacement prop Alex Dickinson scores unopposed after dummying to his right. I bet he is still telling all his mates about it, I know I would.
Armitage (Steffon) scores a try to leave the scores 34-15. Another missed conversion and another cold reception from the travelling support.
The last 20 minutes were painful to watch, even a last minute try and a partial win in the second half did not help. The team hugged in a circle while Lamb was taking (and missing) the last conversion of the day. The players timidly waved at us from the opposite end of the ground, thanking us for our support or apologising? Maybe a bit of both.
Anyway, this was Gloucester party and they celebrated. Gareth Delve was named player of the season and he was interviewed in the centre of the pitch. He is leaving the club to join some other Brits in Melbourne and we left for a quick drink at Teages bar opposite the ground. Luckily this time I didn’t have anyone vomiting on me there as it happened last time.
Things can only get better
Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 22:25
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Re: Things can only get better
Posted by: dave888 (IP Logged)
Date: 27/04/2010 23:35
Interesting report. I had a thoroughly good day out, with lots of banter from and with the home fans as always on my visits to Kingsholm.
You say the home fans chanted "you are not singing any more", but actually a small section of the Shed were singing "you're not ringing anymore" in response to a steward confiscating a town crier-esque bell one Irish supporter had in the Shed. I thought the Simpson-Daniel try where Tindall kicked through was fine as Tindall just rucked our guys out the way after coming straight through the middle. Just a shame school boy rugby-esque the guys didn't play to the whistle otherwise we probably could've slowed the break away.
It's definitely an option to have the penalty where the ball landed after a kick...a silly late tackle from Gibson as the kick was pretty poor, so a stupid pen to give away.
The Glos first try was great, pin point kick from their fly half, much like the one we scored at Worcester but in open play.
You say the home fans chanted "you are not singing any more", but actually a small section of the Shed were singing "you're not ringing anymore" in response to a steward confiscating a town crier-esque bell one Irish supporter had in the Shed. I thought the Simpson-Daniel try where Tindall kicked through was fine as Tindall just rucked our guys out the way after coming straight through the middle. Just a shame school boy rugby-esque the guys didn't play to the whistle otherwise we probably could've slowed the break away.
It's definitely an option to have the penalty where the ball landed after a kick...a silly late tackle from Gibson as the kick was pretty poor, so a stupid pen to give away.
The Glos first try was great, pin point kick from their fly half, much like the one we scored at Worcester but in open play.
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