London Irish Freshers fayre off with a bang
By mgarvey14
October 7 2013
Ever since Reading University opened to its students for the new academic year, London Irish have been marketing this game to green (in more ways than one hopefully!) students to come down and experience the Craic. As someone who has just graduated from Uni it was great to see so many of them and I for one hope some of them want to come back.
Speaking of students I was accompanied by my brother to this match, who started university himself a few weeks back; this did mean a drive up to Gloucester on Saturday morning as he had far too much dirty washing to take back on the train supposedly. Several hours later (somehow my skills of my GPS failed and ended up in a town 20 miles away from him and subsequently got confused for what seemed like ever) we ended up at the ground and upon finding our seats it was great to see Tom and Patrick at the ground with Patrick taking the time the sign many a match day program.
The first half, as descried by Big Bob at half time, was indeed a tight cagey affair typical of many a derby match. Quins for the most part did have the lion’s share of the territory but couldn’t break a tough and organised Irish defence. They had only one good break, off a lineout, but we were good enough to once again hold firm. There were one or two wobbly moments when we really struggled to clear the lines, a failed lineout on our 5 meter line sticks to mind, but in the end they did not prove costly.
Speaking of not proving costly, one of talking points of the match occurred when we were awarded an easily kickable penalty. With a tight score line common sense would say take the 3 points 99 times out of 100. But Shane thought he saw something on and ran with it instead. This resulted in the attack fizzling out, 3 points wasted with it. Now if we had lost by a couple of points Shane would be public enemy and even still I am sure a fair amount of you reading this will be a bit annoyed with the decision too. However I personally think the Shane of old would have done exactly the same and the Shane of old was a real live wire in attack and able to turn a game with moments of magic. On the basis of the better aspects of the game today he really is starting to look like the unconstrained talent of old. Add to that some great game management for the 2nd week running we have ourselves a very able flyhalf who can actually contribute positively to the defensive (can’t comment on Dorrian). Speaking of half backs tackling, Tomas tackling and driving back of one of the Quins players did put a massive smile on my face and summed up the day for me. The score was 6 a piece at half time.
That smile did not go away for the rest of the match. More of the same “hold the line” attitude and Quins mistakes early in the 2nd half convinced me we should win this match (I say should and not would as that Exeter game was still young in the memory). I was further convinced when some great play by Marland and Shane got us close to the line. We went through some phases of forward play taking us within inches until Blair Cowan, already having an absolute stormer of a home debut, got through under the defence to grab the first try. Shane made the conversion but this prompted my only gripe with a Quins fan all day (they are mostly a lovely bunch, who knew!) as he went to strike the ball a lady behind me shouted “Quins” in the worst attempt to put off a kicker I have ever seen. If you really want to try something like that, which is quite sad and makes you look rather silly, be original for crying out loud! My brother suggested something along the lines of “I’m pregnant, Shane”. Would be even more off putting if said by a guy for this example, I guess.
Moving on from this farce and not too far at that, Marland managed to disrupt a ruck and produce a turn over. The ball was spun out to Topsy who produced one of the moments of the match, a cute cross field kick straight into Alex Lewington’s hands who beat his man on the touch line to score his first try in his short and certainly promising Irish career to date. The conversion was missed but 12 points in 4 or so minutes put us into a commanding lead and one we deserved. Following more bad kicking (one was on the half way line so I will give Botica that) Quins were running out of time to stage a comeback. Danny Care’s introduction gave them some hope as he seemed to coincide with some good play and after he scored a clever try down the touchline, off the back of a ruck, echoes of a fortnight ago could certainly be heard. However after sustained pressure from Quins, an Irish turnover ended their hopes and as the clock went dead Marland sent the ball into the stands. A great win and show of character which I believe will give the squad a massive confidence boost moving forward.
Few points I deliberately left out to finish with
Much has been said about the farce that was the officiating so I didn’t want to talk about it too much. However he didn’t seem to favour a side too much so at least Quins fans can’t moan about that (pop over to their page if you have a moment and want a laugh, they are certainly moaning about everything else.)
Skivs back in the side was a huge plus; we looked leaderless against Exeter in the latter stages. Can’t say that today (Gough probably helped on this aspect too). So many great performances all over the park. Cowan is absolute quality.
Atmosphere was the best I have witnessed for a long time. Team playing as a team with real heart really helped this, how they celebrated at the end of the game summed that up for me.
Shane is our best number 10 on current form for me and should start our next AP game.
Quins (well, Evans’s) kicking helped us a little….. Most importantly I wish Kieran Low a speedy recovery. He looked in absolute agony when coming off and hopefully won’t be out for too long.
COYI
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Quote:bigbitty
Well written and very readable. Thanks.
Yep, we watched the same match.. Well done
ME
RUGBY PLAYERS DO IT WITH LEATHER BALLS