Back to Work

Sunday saw us back in action after an unwanted break caused by positive tests for Covid. A trip back to the Stoop, which we had outgrown a few years ago, to play the inconsistent Harlequins. We hadn’t played for 2 weeks and had a strong side out with a good looking bench encompassing Creevy, O’Brien and Simmons on the bench but no sign of Loader, Coleman nor Naholo. Hoskins made his 100th appearance for Irish and the game looked well set.

Harlequins started strongly and put Irish under a lot of pressure. The Irish defence held up well and repelled several attacks as Quins looked to move the ball quickly from one side to the other. Meehan pulled off a great tackle to deny Dombrandt and the first set of play ended with a penalty to Quins scored by Smith.

Irish went on the attack from a quick tap and this ended in  a penalty from Jackson deep into the Quins half. On the attack we looked as though we would cause the Quins defence some issues and Curtis Rona duly scored his 3^rd of the season cutting a great line onto a ball from Meehan to crash over taking 2 tacklers with him. Paddy Jackson added the conversion.

The ball stayed in play for long periods and both sides looked adventurous with ball in hand and Quins eventually stretched the Irish defence across the pitch to create space for Smith to sprint in despite Parton’s last ditch attempt. Almost immediately Irish were again on the Quins line and Hoskins crashed over only to be denied by the TMO. On balance it was one of those where you would disagree with the TMO as an Irish fan but with the boot on the other foot would have found enough to agree with to deny the try.

Quins scored again when Brown bundled over the line from short range although footage shown after the game shows a Quins player had his foot in touch earlier in the phase. Didn’t notice it at the time but no doubt on the replay.

Just before half time Irish scored again from a maul following a lineout with Matu’u scoring a fine forward’s try. 17-12 half time.

The start of the second saw Tom Parton (Man of the match) scythe through the Quins defence just being scragged short of the line. Smith and Jackson traded penalties. Ex Irish player Scott Steele dived over after a series of battering scrums from Quins. I suspect he saved us a yellow card. Quins were then reduced to 14 men after a deliberate knock and were lucky not to have Smith in the bin for a cynical side entry and tackle. Soon after Albert Tuisue capped a fine performance and went over to bring us to within 7 points but Paddy missed the conversion.

Trailing by 7 within 2 minutes to go Irish continue to attack the Quins line and another excellent driving maul saw Ollie Hoskins score to cap his 100^th appearance. Jackson kicked it over from wide and suddenly we were at 27-27. O’Brien latched on to the ball forcing a turnover and from halfway  Jackson’s kick drifted just wide.

A very enjoyable game and a welcome 3 points. O’Brien and Simmons made a difference when they came on and hopefully we will have other players back soon. A good 3 points and plenty of hope going forward – let’s hope when we next get to play we can put in another good performance and add to our points total. A few years ago we’d have lost this game and it was good to see the guys stick at it and put Quins under pressure right to the end.