Time to Panic?

By Sam_R43
September 13 2011

This is the match report for the Sale game on Friday the 9th of September 2011. This report will follow the actions of amateur referee and London Irish supporter, SamR43, in the hours leading up to and during the game at Edgeley Park, events occur in real time. (Cue music from Sky drama "24".)

This Friday night was all about time & panicking!

8/9/11, 12:26:32 – Text with the team comes through, seems very young and lacking experience but that sounds like the story of our season, interesting selection in the backs (no Jarvis)

9/9/11, 14:00:01 – Weather forecast check before leaving on MetCheck; it says it won’t be cold or wet! It must be lying
14:22:41 – Pack the bag. Remember a pen and paper for match reporting, the big drum to annoy the home support, my brand new away shirt to impress Andy Martin & my flag/skirt to keep with tradition.
14:33:18 – Leave Lower Feltham heading toward Whitton to collect DanR43 and then Hanworth for LKR (5hrs12mins to kick-off)
15:31:28 – Leave the M25 onto the M40 heading away from London. Stress about if we’re going to make it on time for kick-off (4hrs14mins)
16:34:59 – Technical interference! (Sat Nav’s playing up) Panic about finding traffic information to avoid all the queues! (3hrs11mins)
17:35:40 – After sitting in traffic at the NEC, Birmingham then get charged £5.30(!) for using the M6 toll. And it begins to rain, that’s more like it! (2hrs10mins)
18:15:51 – More traffic at Crewe (where the R43 family got stuck last year). LKR beings to stress about getting to the game and the fact we’re going to lose, always the optimist. (1hr30mins)
18:40:12 – Confirmation of the arrival of the ‘reasonably lucky Grandma’ at Edgeley Park. She was the ‘lucky Grandma’ as she hadn’t seen us lose a game but she’s seen us lose several now! ‘Maybe it’s because I’m an Irish Londoner’ is played loudly in the car as the pre-match car trip ritual. (1hr5)
19:14:23 – Arrival at Edegely Park, just at Toby begins the warm-up routine. LRK is very pleased as this is her favourite part of the game (as there’s no stress!)
19:20:46 – I’ve been at the ground for 6 minutes and I’ve seen Toby smile twice already! Something must be terribly wrong
19:44:04 – They’ve fixed the sound system at EP, so much so I can’t hear anything else, it’s too loud! A small green section is formed surrounded by hundreds of empty seats
19:46:09 – Still waiting for the teams to come out, and so starts the trend of bad timing keeping from the officials

19:48:46 – After plenty of fireworks and the arrival of a de-robed Monk the game kicks-off!

2:25 – Wavey Davey already given 3 penalties with no advantage given for any of them!

3:47 - Lineout for Sale 30m out, Peel with a break and offload over the gain line. Recycled quickly and spread out wide, Topsy is easily handed off and a simple 2v1 to finish the try off. TRY Sale 7-0

5:31 – Play enters Sale 22, “No.9 Green sector stairway” is causing obstruction (aka. There is a large pole in front of the stand so we can’t see play!)

8:29 – LI lineout just outside Sale 22, thrown pretty straight but Sale don’t jump for it anyway (ie. No material difference) but Davey gives it not straight anyway. He hadn’t given anything for about 30 seconds anyway.

10:20 – A very high and long up and under by Tom, Sale fumble on their own 22. Recovered by LI and rumble towards the line, continuously breaking the gain line up to the Sale 5m. Davey gives a penalty on Sale 5m without an advantage again! Taking the 3, Tom steps up... converted, 7-3

13:27 – Peel refuses to feed the ball; scrum goes down, handbags, LI pen from the next scrum. A massive touch kick from Shingler (inside LI 22 to inside Sale 22)! LI pen from resulting lineout in a very kickable position, more handbags, going for the lineout! Strange decision?

16:40 – LI lineout on Sale 5m, forwards drive on... David goes over the line... Davey pauses... Looks on... Blows the whistle... Everyone pauses... Oh it’s a TRY! Converted by Tom, 7-10

19:28 – I’m still writing about the last try, Sale kick-off, something happens, TRY Sale, converted 14-10. Someone dropped it from the restart, so I’m told! Wake up Irish!

22:45 – Great run by Topsy, and then two great runs by Chris from LI lineout. Advantage to LI on Sale 22 in front of the posts, Bowden takes a drop goal... Charged down and bounces to Shingler, who takes a drop goal which runs along the floor embarrassingly. Back for the penalty in front of the posts, converted by Tom, 14-13 26:15 – Poor LI defence means Sale break up to LI 22 and continue a strong attack. David makes a tackle, after one or two milliseconds Davey blows for a Sale pen for David not rolling away! Converted for Sale, 17-13

28:29 - Good passing off the base of a very dominant LI scrum. Out to JJ who runs a line outside the Sale centre, dummies outside and then steps the fullback, TRY! Converted from the touchline by Tom, 17-20

32:49 – Sale offside from the kick-off, LI scrum on halfway (picky Davey). Another dominant LI scrum leading to a penalty on halfway. Tom steps up to kick, it’s a long one... he kicks... It’s huge! It’s easily over, great kick, 17-23

39:15 – Sale pen on LI 22 in front of the posts for holding on after another dominant LI scrum. Converted,

20-23. Half time.

Half time thoughts... Both teams have defences like sieves! Holes all over the field, hence all the points. Both attacks looks good, but made be due to the poor defence! The LI forwards have been very dominant, in both scrums and open play with Chris H having a very good game.

Also during half time we were visited by a steward, I mention no names but he was steward number 3. He told Big Al that he can’t take photos during play! Stoppages in play are fine but when they are playing rugby you can’t take photos (ridiculous). He also told us that we can’t stand up in our seats, despite there being a massive pole in the way of the pitch and there being only a handful of Irish supporters and no one else in the entire section of the stand! After being told this BQFM went to investigate further, after being ‘told off’ she came back to inform us that ‘bobbing’ was allowed but any ‘prolonged standing’ is strictly against the rules. We wanted to find out the situation on prolonged bobbing but the teams were coming back out. Second half kicks off...

2:32 – After a number of penalties and scrums and free kicks Sale take a kick for goal around 50m out, missed, still 20-23

5:28 – LI attack from 50m, several good breaks from the forwards who are still looking strong, up to the Sale 22m. Good sustained pressure, a break from Darren A with 5m out. Switched out to the left and popped off to Marland who runs a great line and is tackled just short of the Sale line, Davey calls back for a forward pass (didn’t look forward) and Marland is taken off injured. Adam comes on to replace him, back to the ground where he got so badly injured last year.

8:07 – Another very dominant scrum from LI on the Sale 22m resulting in an LI penalty (with no advantage). Tom kicks... converted, 20-26

14:41 – Off comes Clarke & Darren replaced by Max & Dodge. Thought Darren had a very good game, strange to take him off when Dodge isn’t in his best form. A poor pass from Dodge immediately loses a good position on the Sale 22m and a kick through means we end up defending on our own 5m

17:13 – Peel picks up off the base of the ruck 22m, slips and slides past David and then Dodge and runs over for a TRY! 27-26

21:21 – Game pace slows down, several reset scrums (at least should have been LI pen), ball becomes a lot slower and backs seem less organised. 1 scrum reset costs 1min36 on the game clock!

25:44 – A further 2 scrum resets wastes another 1min14secs before Sale break into the LI half and get a penalty in front of the posts around 45m out for not rolling away. Taking the points... converted, 30-26

32:33 – After a Sale knock on around half way, Davey stops to do up his lace (double knot I believe) without stopping the clock, wasting another 30secs before putting time off after the lace for a Sale injury.

35:35 – A crooked lineout on the Sale 22m giving LI a scrum, a Sale player goes down to do up his shoelace (Velcro anyone?) and Davey lets the clock run for another 30secs while he does his lace up! From the resulting scrum LI get a penalty but opt to kick for goal 4 points down with 3mins to go, seems like a very strange decision! Tom sprinted over from the touchline to take the penalty having probably got orders from above. Converted, 30-29

37:30 – LI having to play from their own 22m, break up towards the 10m line but knock the ball on in an attempt to offload. Sale slowly set up the scrum, with the clock running and after 1 very long reset and another 1min20secs taken off the clock Sale kick the ball out and it’s full time.

Sale 30 – 29 London Irish

Second half thoughts... The game was a lot slower in the 2nd half, couldn’t get any rhythm going at all. That meant the back looked far less organised than in the first half although both LI and Sale’s defences improved seconds half. We brought Dodge on at the wrong time, 6 points up in a close game when Darren added a level of urgency to the team which Dodge did not. Sale cleverly slowed the game down after Peel’s try when they went ahead. And Davey made sure the game slowed down in the 2nd half by wasting huge amounts of time on the game clock (5 minutes wasted in the last 30mins with shoelaces and resets!). However, on the bright side the forwards dominated the game throughout both in the scrum and in the loose but the lineout left a lot to be desired.

A special mention to Dan Bowden and Matt Garvey as after the final whistle had gone and the team had finished their huddle they were the only two players who tried to drag the other players over the acknowledge us away supporter, well done them!

Well, well, well, where do we go from here! We face a very difficult away match to Northampton next week which I doubt we’ll get anything out of. With a handful of injuries (Marland’s dislocated shoulder, Matt Garvey ended up in a sling) and a very thin young squad during the World Cup we’re going to struggle over the next few weeks. But we are only two weeks in and played Quins, who look good this year, and Sale away on a Friday night, which is always a struggle. At the end of this week we’re still ahead of Leicester & Newcastle, time to panic? Not quite yet.