Is it next season yet…?
By AlecW
November 16 2020
Believe it or not, the rather delayed 2020-2021 Gallagher Premiership season starts on Friday 20th November. That’s right. You aren’t hallucinating. The new club season. In 3-4 days. London Irish is away to Worcester on Saturday 21st at 1500 in what might be a very important game, with Irish, Worcester and Newcastle the three clubs most predicted to go down. And yet there has been barely any fanfare (thank God, in the case of our unlamented girl-band ‘warm up act’), pre-season analysis or predictions. Yes, there’s plenty of rugby on at the moment. There’s the Autumn Nations Cup (Six Nations plus Georgia and Fij… well, that went well, didn’t it?) and The Rugby Championship (minus South Africa) that produced a sensational match and sensational result last Saturday morning: New Zealand 15 – 25 Argentina. But little or no interest in the Premiership thus far. Is this because the latter stages of last season were only about five weeks ago? Because the whole thing was so disrupted by Covid-19 that it bore little resemblance to a spectator sport? Because there was no atmosphere at all and it was like watching an opposed training session? Because we are all so sick to death of lockdown and associated restrictions that it was hard to summon up any enthusiasm? Because the end of the Six Nations was also an absolute yawn-fest?
This is a strange start to the season, to Irish’s ‘new era’, its return to its West London roots, in a new stadium where we may not own or even co-own the blasted thing, but at least we get to keep our share of the revenues. As opposed to the absolutely egregious ‘deal’ with the Madejski Stadium… There still won’t be any supporters and therefore any atmosphere, for a start. As of today (Monday 16th) it is not clear whether season-ticket holders will be sent a username and link to watch LI’s ‘home’ games, or will be relying on other sources to watch them. We have very little visibility as to which players are fully fit and which still recovering from operations (planned and unplanned), injuries and other mishaps, so who knows which version of LI will show up at Sixways on Saturday? Let us hope that it is a team that is more experienced, more focused, less callow and more streetwise carrying more ‘grunt’ than one or two of the teams that appeared in green during the latter stages of last season. Was it only 4th October that we played our last match? Not long for rest and recovery!
Our first XV or even XXIII is capable of fighting toe to toe with most GP sides, perhaps excepting Exeter, Sale and Bristol. But (leaving aside different views on the XV or XXIII constituents), who is to say when or if they might all get onto the field at the same time? Will Simmons and Coleman ever play together? Will Coleman ever be fit? Will O’Brien ever again match deeds on the pitch to his frequent words on the page (or justify his allegedly eye-watering salary)? Will Jackson find the confidence once again to boss and marshal a back line? Meehan to whip the ball away asap, as opposed to taking 1-2 steps? Will our bright prospects in the front row convert to nasty, hard, relentless opponents? Will Tuisue ever get any support in his mission to get over the gain line? Will we learn not to kick the ball away aimlessly at every opportunity? Will we ever get any creativity or penetration in the backs, or every time we sniff the opponents’ 22 go from side to side relentlessly (losing ground slowly, but inexorably) until we kick the ball away, drop it, lose it in the tackle, throw an interception, get pinged at the breakdown or tackled into touch? Will our exciting young backs come into their own on a consistent basis? And if they do, will we keep them, or will they go the way of so many LI backs, from Geoghegan and Staples in the 90s to Sackey and Flutey in the noughties, to Cockanasiga, Yarde, Armitage (D), Joseph, Watson, Lewington (I could go on) more recently? Will it even be fun finding out?
When will our “World Class Training Facilities©” come to mean something more tangible than an empty marketing slogan like “There’s Something Special [and financially underhand!] Happening at Saracens”…?
I guess we will have a better view on Saturday at about 1645…
I suppose we should be grateful – imagine the situation of Newcastle, who have not played a competitive game since beating Bedford 41-0 on 16th March. Their first competitive game this term? Away to Bath on Saturday. How on earth can they prepare, given that even pre-season friendlies have been banjaxed by Covid-19…? I suppose they should be odds-on to go down again, but thirty years of supporting LI have taught me never to underestimate our capacity for ****-ups.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
You've captured all the ponderables and imponderables of supporting irish that we have to endure before the occasional euphoria of a well earned, or more likely nicked win. Here we go again. It'll be a bumpy ride!
Hands up I’m a SOB fan and not naysayer but interesting that he’s not part of the leadership group.
Just hope we hit this from the off
On SOB - he was on the Rugby Pod this week and was actually pretty modest and decent - says he's looking forward to Worcester and had a hamstring issue during end of last season which was minor.
If anyone has ideas for stories then do please email the copy to editors@londonirish.org and I'll keep them in the bank unless they're topical (or you request immediate publishing).
As someone once said "it's good to be back, good to be back..."!
Living in the Scottish Borders, used to support London Irish, now following Kelso (newly promoted to the Scottish Premiership)
A season of consolidation is the summary.
Telegraph season preview - all teams
Very thin on the ground are season previews in the media.
