Tuesday Night Lights

With England's lockdown easing several clubs took the opporunity to play their round 19 fixtures late so as to jump past the easing on Monday and welcome back their support. For Irish it was the penultimate chance to get people into their new stadium in Brentford. Opponents Exeter were kind enough to allow the Exiles to reschedule their match for the Tuesday and we got to see our team play. It was, however, Exeter's only concession...    

The first half was fairly even with the teams swapping tries, both confirmed by the TMO and both converted. Superstar Sam Simmonds added to his impressive season tally for the Chiefs and as part of a fantastic performance Ben Donnell scored for the home side.

Chiefs took the lead through the other Simmonds - Joe - who showed the class he's demonstrated all season by capitalising on a half-missed tackle by Irish and using his skill to dissect the rest of the defence. His brother wasn't to be upstaged and ended a prolonged period of pressure for the visitors by crashing through the stretched Irish cover. With Joe converting Sam's try and not his own it left Exeter 12 points clear and Irish were looking down the barrel.

The home side didn't give up, though and managed to score arguably the best of their tries with Ben Loader collecting an inside pass from Ollie Hassell-Collins after the speedy winger got on the end of a well-weighted chip from Paddy Jackson.

With a crowd in the place was rocking and going in at half-time only 7 points shy the home support could feel a little hope. As any Irish fan can tell you, it's the hope that kills you.

In this case, however it was Exeter's skill and the Exiles' own tendancy to force an unnecessary pass that killed us.

In the second half Irish failed to score, they weren't lacking chances there was some lovely bright play and genuine chances but the final pass was often forced allowing Exeter to intercept and gain yards and/or tries. It was either that or a misplaced pass getting knocked-on I lost count of the number of times Ollie Hassell-Collins was passed the ball with a look of real surprise on his face.

There was also an unfortunate moment of misjudgement by Ben Loader who, while tracking a chipped ball over the goal line, mis-timed his touch and allowed Tom O'Flaherty to pick his pocket and score. It was a real sucker-punch and it pretty much ended Irish chances of league points from the game.

Exeter ran in a further try, giving Sam Simmonds a hat-trick, although it could've been more without some ferocious defending from the home side. O'Flaherty was also yellow-carded for a mis-timed tackle in the air during a period where it seemed Chiefs were actually trying to kill Tom Parton - such was the number of kicks he had to deal with under extreme, often penalised, tackles.

So it ended Irish 12 - 31 Exeter which flatters the visitors a little I feel. They didn't really have to get out of second gear, though, and I do wonder what would've happened had Irish found those final passes and kept the score close. We've all seen them turn the wick up and obliterate teams. Going into the game I was expecting nothing and that's what we got. There was a lot to be disappointed with but equally a lot of positives to take away.

Albert Tuisue on his 50th cap put in a massive shift. Gus Creevy was supoer-human. Ben Donnell and George Nott both showed genuine progress. Hassell-Collins and Loader were both a handful in the loose and Sean O'Brien put in a cameo at the end showing he's back fit. Paddy Jackson continued to show he can control (at least bits of) a game. At the end of the day we were beaten by a very good team who needed a big win, we shouldn't accept that without qualification but with a following wind we can build from here.

A sell-out crowd of 4,000 saw the game, and drank the beer concessions dry. If you ignore the result it was a good day.