London Irish v London Welsh

So following on from the open training session the previous Thursday the season kicked off with what is becoming the traditional opener against London Welsh at the non-traditional time of 3pm on Saturday due to the lack of club involvement at the recent Middlesex 7’s.

Several of the clubs new signings were making their debuts in the starting line up (Anthony Watson (not yet in the academy), Adrian Jarvis, Ross Samson, Leo Halavatau, Ed Siggery and Alex Gray) with 29 players named and we were promised that there would be rolling substitutions throughout the game which might make some of the detail in this report a bit difficult.

The sides came out with Gary Johnson and James Tideswell both starting for Welsh while on their bench was Jack Moates from the Irish Academy. Irish were awarded an early penalty for holding and Adrian Jarvis kicked the club into the lead (Good to know we have some new kicking options) There was a passage of play which ended with a kick from the Irish 22 into the far corner of the ground (by the scoreboard) which I credited to Jarvis (but the family are not so sure) unfortunately we were penalised for a blatant tug at the back of the line out.

Ten minutes in and Bob Casey goes down and comes off with an injury (by the end of the game he’s walking round in a sling.) He’s replaced by Nick wearing a number 4 on his shirt meaning Irish had two number 4’s on the pitch. Fairly shortly after this Brian Blaney is down and I wonder if we are going to have any Irish players available by the start of the season. Alex Gray takes a knock and needed a headband put around his head making his hair less “shaggy” than usual.

Tom makes the first of a number of breaks as he takes the ball the cry of “Go on Tom” is heard loudly in the stand and I don’t think that’s just because I‘m sat behind his number 1 fan’s great-aunt! Wonder how much expectation we are placing on Tom to cover for Delon until the World cup is over?

Welsh attacked and scored a try which was given to Greg Bateman.

Irish were awarded a scrum 10 meters from the try line. I looked to the right to say something to the family as the scrum was taken and as I turned back Marland was going over the line to score. I’m informed that Gray picked the ball up at the back of the scrum, passed to Sampson and then Jarvis who passed to Yarde on the switch to score but if you saw it differently you will have to take this up with Sam as there are no replays at Sunbury!

I have notes that say “Tackle on Siggery (Was he in the air?)” “Turnover, leads to cross kick which Marland just missed” and “Sir stops move with crossing as Blaney breaks for the line” which suggest a period of Irish pressure as half time approached but my final note says Try Welsh (Will Hurrell (13-14))

At half time we were told that ; Matt G, Mark George, James Buckland, Faan, Darren, Steve Shingler came on Richard was also there but interestingly the back line remained the same (According to LKR the average age of these 5 is 20)

My first note records Anthony Watson making a break when not held and this is followed by Marland scoring his second try following a back row move after breaking a couple of tackles, Steven Shingler took the kick this time and we are back into the lead 20-14.

There were lots of changes on both sides with Topsy and Guy coming on for Irish and the flow of the game seems to be affected. Welsh seem for a period to get the upper hand approaching the Irish line and turning over scrums, during this period of pressure Jack Moates scores for Welsh to take them into the lead 20-21 (Well actually he’s one of ours so maybe that’s 27-14?!)

Dan Bowden was brought on the replace Tom (Shingler moving to full back and Dan to 10)and Kieran returned for Nick, the good news from an Irish point of view was that Dan at 10 seemed to work and we returned to being the more dominant side, Welsh were giving penalties away one of which was kicked (23-21)

For a friendly, where last year there were 4 yellow cards, the game had been played in a good spirit but all of a sudden there was a brawl with most of the players involved. Taione was carded for Welsh but at least one of our side can count himself lucky not to have gone as well (Not saying who in case Judge Blackett having sorted out the RFU over the summer has returned to reading message boards!) The combination of Dan and Topsy lead to another try through the centre with Topsy making a break from Dan’s pass (30-21) Dodge is on the touchline waiting to come on but as the conversion goes over Mr Wigglesworth blows for full time.

What does the exercise tell us of our hopes for the season? I suspect that it is too early to say especially with all the changes in this first game, but the squad certainly seems to include some promising new acquisitions. As is so often the case with our squad we look to have a group of players who maybe capable of challenging in some of the competitions if we avoid key injuries but the squad is very young and personally I feel we will need to be lucky on the injury front if we are seriously hoping to compete in the premiership, Heineken (although this year’s draw gives us a chance) and LV= this year but the roller-coaster that is London Irish supporting starts again for another year. Next stop Biarritz.