Sublime/Ridiculous

After an unbeaten run of 5 games (ignoring the Covid-related "losses") Irish came clattering to earth with a hammering at Sandy Park. The champions were still, unsurprisingly, a good team, even with a chunk of guys on international duty. Returning home to Brentford was another dautning prospect - the current top-of-the-table team Bristol Bears were coming. Would the result be similar to the Exeter drubbing?

Being the only game on BT Sport is usually the kiss-of-death for Irish, we so rarely perform in front of a big audience - it's no wonder, really, that the Exiles don't get more plaudits for that reason. Publicity-doom aside, though, it seemed a good time to meet the Bears with a few of their key players missing and, with a bit of luck, some complacency from their lofty league position.

Things all looked good early doors with Irish getting much of the ball and looking like they had real intent. The line was broken regularly and Bristol were having to put-in a real defensive shift to stop scores for the home side. It really was quite a shift, though, the line-speed of the visitors was awesome and, even with a lot of the posession Irish failed to get the points.

During this phase there was the contentious play. Theo Brophy-Clews, playing at inside centre was tackled having passed the ball by his opposite number. The challenge lifted him off his feet and tipped him past the horizontal before landing him upside-down with no form of control. It wasn't malicious, and thankfully Theo wasn't injured by it, but on a weekend that had already seen 5 red cards in the other 4 games it seemed a no-brainer that Sam Bedlow would be leaving the field after only 3 minutes. To much surprise, though, referee Karl Dickson and TMO Ian Tempest saw fit to talk it down between themelves to a yellow. They were in a minority with many pundits and supporters (from both involved sides and many others) saying it was a clear red card. It was what it was, though, and we had to deal with it.

And deal with it we very much didn't. In the subsequent 10 minute period Irish scored only 3 points to Bristol's 17! The tries were both from interceptions, and both came from prolonged periods of Irish pressure. The aforementioned Bears' line-speed paid-off in spades with Charles Piutau and Siva Naulago collecting the final pass from Irish hands to tear down the pitch for against-the-run-of-play scores. Piutau had the shorter run and was tackled but managed a classy off-load knowing support would be there. Naulago covered most of the pitch and, despite a chase from speedy Ollie Hassell-Collins, was never going to get caught.

As discussed Irish's attack was looking good... BUT the runners were almost exclusively far-too shallow, often the pass went behind them as they'd over-run. This was one of the reasons that Bristol were able to intercept so well, they didn't have to cover much distance to get in the mix. A metre or two would've made all the difference.

With the shock of the two freak scroes the Exiles started to look a lot more shaky. Paddy Jackson, who has looked masterful in recent games, really lost his way and, where his kicking from hand has givin us good go-forward he was missing his marks quite badly and giving Bristol opportunities to attack. Another missing his mark was hooker Matt Cornish who missed almost all his lineout throws. They weren't alone, though, we were rattled and Bristol scented blood. Relentless pressure from the visitors found chinks in the Irish defence and over the rest of the half the visiting team managed to get the further two tries to secure a bonus point. The first was a massive forwards' try finished under the posts by Chris Vui while the second a quite breath-taking backs move finsihed off by that man Naulogo.

Despite a second penalty from the boot of Jackson, with a couple of minutes of the first half remaining Irish were staring down the barrel of 6 - 31. It needed a massive effort from the entire team and a miracle to see this being anything other than a pasting. Big team efforts are often sparked from a moment of individual brilliancs and this was the time for ours.

Step-up Steve Mafi. The big Tongan picked-up from a ruck and had clearly decided that all this messing about with passing and running lines wasn't for him. He simply ran forwards, through the Bristol defensive line and under the posts in a quite stunning one-man effort. It was the fillip the home side needed and gave the support some hope of at least making a game of it.

Before the game, when looking at the team selection it was obvious that the Irish big names were being held on the bench. It was commented in advance that, if Irish could hold the visitors early-on, the "finishers" might snatch the win. Irish hadn't held the visitors going-in at half-time trailing 13 - 31 but it seemed that Bristol coach Pat Lam had forgotten the pre-match predictions.

Irish started the second half as brightly as the first but with fewer errors and, while the home side made no early scores they also held the visitors to nil too - and looked to have either blunted the Bristol attack or at least made them stop scoring out of pity. With it looking like a stalemate Lam started to make changes to his side. It didn't seem he was bringing-on "finishers", though, instead he seemed to be protecting the talent for future battles. This would seem prudent but, with the Irish bench waiting,it was a little premature.

The key for me was Charles Piutau. The man is a complete nightmare - it's almost as if it's HIS ball and only those he wants to can play with it. He was replaced as Bristol took the first score of the half with a penalty and it opened the door for a quite remarkable come-back. Captain Steven Luatua had only recently returned to the team from injury and he was subbed shortly afterwards, they missed his grit too.

Irish would have to wait to make an impact, however, as a careless intercept attempt from Ben Loader saw the winger collect his first yellow card, and Irish's first for the season, on his 50th appearance. The teams were evened-up half-way through the 10 minutes with Bristol's number 8 Mitch Eadie trying-it-on with an off-the-ball hit on Nick Phipps.

Soon the free-flowing attacks and posession for the visitors had dried-up and with some of the Irish big names coming-on it was soon only one team that was making moves. The starting front-row had done well, Cornish's wayward darts aside, they'd scrummaged brilliantly and been quite handy in-the-loose but they were replaced around the same time as Piutau and Luatua and suddenly Irish had the upper-hand. Gus Creevy, Alan Dell and Lovejoy Chawatama are quite a bench front-three.

The tries started coming. Theo Brophy-Clews, in his best game for us in my opinion, finished his day finishing-off a free-flowing backs move into the corner to be replaced by Terrence Hepetema who had clearly noted the other man's staking a claim for the 12 shirt.

Hepetema joined-up with a resurgent Sean O'Brien and the first-half scorer Mafi to splinter the Bristol wall - Phipps took the chance to score under the posts and suddenly from being 28 points down the Exiles were within a score. Surely they couldn't do it?

A bonus point was scored with three minutes to go - with Jackson adding the extras (as he had with all the others) to draw the scores level! Tom Parton had come-on for starting full-back James Stokes and, while Stokes had been fine, Parton showed he was a real full-back, the extra space can't have hurt either, and Tom finished off after a cross-field kick from Jackson had been caught in the air and Naulago had tackled the player. While the Bristol winger protested his innocence and his team mates came in to add their two-penneth Irish recycled the ball and popped it wide for Parton to sprint into the gaps, crucailly managing to bring the ball in-field to give Jackson an easier shot.

The final three minutes were all Irish, with the vistors scrambling desperately to hold onto the draw (or maybe even nick the game - this is Irish after all). It almost seemed inevitable that the Exiles would make the advantage count but, alas, in true London Irish form the final attack - a four on one overlap - was scuppered by an atrocious pass from wonder-boy Parton. He'd had such a good cameo up to that point but I'll bet you it's only that moment he remembers. The ball spilled forward and the game came to a halt.

It felt like a victory, Irish had been so far out of the game towards the end of the first half that to come away with 3 league points was amazing!

However, the fact that Sam Bedlow has been subsequently cited and banned for his early challenge make one wonder. Would Bristol have managed to keep that intensity up for 77 minutes a man down? The evidence of those 10 minutes was that they actually played best during that period but the match was a frenetic affair and surely the extra effort would've take its toll at some point? We'll never know, and it's probably just wishful thinking.

The draw was spectacular, the BT commentary team (and Channel 5 pundits) all agreed that it was a fantastic game of rugby to watch. To be associated with that, and to be celebrated for such a plucky come-back, will do the club a great deal. I suspect that single game (depending on when crowds are allowed back) will add a fair few bums-on-seats at Brentford. It will also loosen the grip of the back-monkey of historically playing badly in the spotlight.

Keep it going you Irish!