The Long and Winding Road

An early-ish start to the day – Jon_R43’s mini bus set off from Reading at 9am. Needing to avoid the M25 due to an earlier accident, Jon’s satnav decided to take us on a scenic tour of some of Oxfordshire’s country lanes (it’s only a road if it has a white line down the middle).As is always the case, it was an enjoyable journey with some interesting discussions to help pass the time – I now know that Adolf Hitler and Harry Rednapp had similar effects on the fortunes of Portsmouth Football Club.

The forecast heavy showers kindly restricted themselves to the journey up to Leicester (although maybe this was not so good for Jon – not the best driving conditions at times) and despite a few threatening looking clouds passing over it remained dry from our arrival at Welford Road a mere 2 and a half hours before kick-off.

The match started brightly for Irish – we win a penalty after a couple of minutes, which Ian Humphreys converts. Three minutes on the clock, it’s a lovely warm sunny day and we are beating the Tigers – does it get any better than this?

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The answer, unfortunately was No. Our lead was to last about 5 minutes – a penalty in front of the posts gave Toby Flood an easy chance to level the scores. The first try of the afternoon came just after the quarter hour mark – Leicester had been dominating play and threatening to score again since levelling the scores. Play is right in front of the small group of London Irish supporters on the Crumbie terrace – Leicester fumble and the ball goes forward – however neither the referee or his assistant notice this and a few phases later play has moved to the far side of the pitch for Tom Croft to score. Flood is off target with the conversion, so Leicester lead 8-3.
Just 3 minutes later and Leicester have their second try – this time we cannot fault the referee, but a lack of any meaningful defence allows Ben Youngs to run in – Flood is again off target with his conversion attempt. Leicester lead 13-3 with a little under 20 minutes played.

For the remainder of the first half, things were more even and we managed to waste a good looking opportunity to reduce the deficit. Jamie Gibson charged down a clearance close the Leicester line and collected the loose ball, but his pass found touch rather than a teammate – as the play was in the diagonally opposite corner of the pitch, my view wasn’t the best, but it looked as if Jamie should have backed himself to score.

The next incident of note is between Darren Allinson and Geordan Murphy – Murphy certainly tackled Allinson when the ball was nowhere near, and it seems that when both players got back to the action Allinson’s boot made contact with Murphy’s head in a ruck. In typical Arsene Wenger style, I did not see the incident clearly, but if it was deliberate than a citing and a ban may well be coming Darren’s way.

We survived further periods of Leicester pressure and had another half chance ourselves before the half ended with the Tigers leading 13-3.

In the early exchanges in the second half, although Leicester look the more dangerous, we have a fair share of possession and have a couple of good breaks. It is Leicester who open the scoring for the half, a good line and strong run from Matthew Tait sees him finish off a good move from Leicester’s backs to score their third try – this time Flood is successful with the conversion, so Leicester lead 20-3 with around half an hour to play.

Now those who have followed Irish on their travels this season could be forgiven for fearing the worst and hoping we keep the score down to a respectable level, but we know we are never predicable and within a few minutes we strike back – we have a lineout around 6 or 7 metres from the Leicester line – we drive forward from the lineout and Alex Corbisiero picks up and crosses the line.


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Ian Humphreys converts, so the deficit is down to 10 points – Leicester 20, Irish 10 – last season we came from 17 points down to secure a 24-24 victory – could we be on for a repeat?

David Paice replaces Scott Lawson.

We have some good possession and threaten the Tigers line, but their defence holds firm and then it is Leicester’s turn to have possession and put us under pressure. Keeping the ball and going through the phases, Leicester suck in our defence and then spin the ball out to the backs with a massive overlap for Vereniki Goneva on the left wing and the bonus point try is scored – Flood converts and Leicester lead 27-10 with just under 20 minutes remaining.

Leo Halavatau, Declan Danaher and Jebb Sinclair replace Halani Aulika, Matt Garvey and Ofisa Treviranus.

Jack Moates is on for Darren Allinson.

Toby Flood ensures the Leicester victory and home semi-final with a solo effort – a good run with a couple of side-steps, but no noticeable attempt at a tackle to stop him. Flood is off target with the conversion, so Tigers lead 32-10.

Jerry Yanuyanutawa, Kieran Low and Shane Geraghty replace Alex Corbisiero, Bryn Evans and Ian Humphreys.

The last 10 minutes were to belong to Irish – a good chip through from Shane Geraghty finds Topsy Ojo in space on the wing and our all-time record try scorer increases his total. Tom Homer’s conversion attempt drifts wide, however one of the touch judges raised his flag – so should we have got 1 point? The score is now 32-15.

With a couple of minutes left on the clock Marland Yarde collects the ball in midfield and his pace takes him past the Leicester defence for our third try. Tom is again off target with the conversion – 32-20 to the Tigers.


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50 seconds are left on the clock, 1 more try will give us a try bonus and a losing bonus – but it is not to be – although we win possession from the restart we are unable to advance out of our 22 and time is up.

Overall it was an open and entertaining game, we have had far worse experiences on the road this season – our defensive lapses certainly helped with a couple of Leicester’s tries and we wasted a golden opportunity of our own – however I suspect if the scores had been closer, Leicester’s defence would have been tighter in the closing stages. Leicester were the better team and deserved their victory – and I wish them good luck for the play-offs.

The title of this piece could be a reference to the scenic route taken out from Reading on our trip up to Leicester or to our season as a whole.
A year ago and during pre-season, Brian Smith had been telling us what a great season it was going to be, challenging for all competitions, playing our strongest team in every match, being in contention for silverware come the end of the season.
So it didn’t pan out as planned – after conceding 40 or more points in each of our first 3 matches, the writing was on the wall. At the post match Q&A session after our first home game, Brian was asked about our new defence coach Shaun Edwards – the question being “When does he start?” Strangely at future Q&As, question were not taken from the supporters!!

Things did improve a little – a couple of good home wins against Bath & Northampton, a winning start to our Amlin campaign and a close run thing at home to Quins – but these were offset by disappointing performances away at Worcester and Sale.
The turning point of our season seems to have been the departure of Shaun Edwards, which was closely followed by our only away win in the league at Gloucester, which was also our best defensive performance of the season.

Brian Smith told us that winning our home matches would give us enough points for premiership survival – this time he was correct, we have been unbeaten at home since the turn of the year but with the exception of Gloucester, our performances on road continued to disappoint and the 40 point conceded mark was achieved on a couple more occasions.

So we finished 9th – we had originally been told to expect a lot better – but at the turn of the year, most of us would have been happy with 11th.

Looking forward to next season - overall there will be less changes – before the 2012-13 season we had a new coaching set up and a large number of new players to settle in – next time round it is only new players, although it would be nice to have a full time defence coach added to the team.
On paper, it can be argued that those coming in are not of the same quality as those departing – however Brain Smith has discovered a few gems in the past and Glenn Delany has good knowledge of championship players, so should know who is ready to step up a level. So 2013-14 might not been our season for winning the premiership, but it should be more comfortable viewing than 2012-13.

COME ON YOU IRISH