Bitty and Gritty
By Griff
January 18 2022
European rugby returned this weekend with Irish welcoming and old foe Edinburgh to the BCS. The Exiles record against the Scottish capital is a chequered one with many of the support remembering heartbreak at Murrayfield on multiple occasions. With Irish starting the Champions Cup strongly, only to be dealt a covid-draw against Brive, the stage was set for classic London Irish noble failure.
It seemed unfair that the away side got to pick the weather - it was bitterly cold bringing memories of trips to Edinburgh but Irish started brightly. The first twenty minutes of play was almost entirely in the visitors' half, frequently their 22, and with the ball in the hands of the Exiles. It has to be said that Edinburgh's defence was superb and they held their line steadfastly. Irish did cross the whitewash a number of times - I lost count frankly - only to have each time to be adjudged not a try. The most egregious of these was Albert Tuisue's who was ruled to have handled the ball on the ground (honestly, "double-movement" is a rugby league offence) despite replays showing a single placing of the ball.
Irish were going to need to be cleverer, Edinburgh on the other hand showed from virtually their first foray into the Irish half that they were ruthless with prop Adam McBurney scoring from the back of a lineout.
Twenty minutes in, with Irish having almost all the play and the score was 0 - 7.
Straight from the restart Irish clearly had the bit between their teeth with a fabulous backs-move stretching the Ediburgh defence to breaking point and seeing one of their own - Kyle Rowe - blitzing through to score for the home side. Paddy Jackson made the score level.
Now it was the visiting side's turn to show some backs skill with a blistering Edinburgh attack ending with winger Ramiro Moyano crossing the line. The extras and a penalty shortly after the restart gave Edinburgh a 10 point lead going in at half time.
Irish managed the first score of the second half with concerted pressure getting them back to the well-known position on the Edinburgh goal line but this time managed to breach the wall with Ollie Hoskins crashing over.
Another score for Irish followed only to be chalked-off (again) by Sir when an Irish pass from the base of a ruck accidentally struck Rob Simmons's head and went forward. Matt Rogerson picked the ball up and got it to Nick Phipps who scored. Sir judged it a knock-on and therefore called Rogerson offside. It felt very much like Mr Gnecchi didn't want the Exiles to win.
Neither did Edinburgh who refocused and tried a cross-field kick to breach the Irish line. Only a superb try-saving tackle by Ollie Hassell-Collins saved the home side.
Edinburgh kept the pressure up and after a ruck in the Irish 22 Edinburgh flanker Jamie Ritchie pulled Augustin Creevy to the ground. Getting to his feet Gus put his head close to his opposition's face. Without TMO Mr Gnecchi and his assistant decided Gus needed a yellow card but the Argentinean pleaded for the ref to review the footage - which he eventually did - and Gus got a red card for a "headbutt". I couldn't see it myself from the footage at the ground and, if he'd genuinely butted Ritchie I can't see why such a streetwise competitor as Creevy would ask for a review but that's how it was seen. We await review but on the day it left Irish down to 14 men for 20 minutes and a further 3 points behind. Crucially, though, it also left them annoyed and fired-up.
The hosts returned to a bit of dominance with Edinburgh returning to their resolute defence. Time and again Irish battered into their opponents half only to be denied a score. Edinburgh's efforts, though, were clearly leaving them tired and they resorted to kicks up-field to clear their lines and some of these were returned by the Exiles in-hand and at pace.
The pressure told with Sir finally calling an offside line and giving Irish a kick which was taken to the corner. As the clock ticked down the men-in-green toiled long and hard to breach the sterling defence and finally, with two and a helf minutes left, Olly Cracknell boshed over the line - absolutely delighted - to bring his side to within a point.
It has to be said that Paddy Jackson's kicking both from the tee and from hand has, to say the least, varied in quality over the season. Occasionally sublime but also at times horrible. And Irish needed him to kick the extras from out wide to go ahead...
He only went and did it, though. Only a minute to hold out!
From the restart you could see how much the teams wanted the win with both scrambling fo rthe ball. The ball went forward a number of times, for my green eyes the initial knock was Edinburgh's - Mr Gnecchi disagreed and awarded the visitors a scrum.
I've not mentioned the scrums before, mostly because I couldn't make sense of them all day. From the initial one it looked very much like the Edinburgh front-row were losing badly and frequently ended up on their faces - most were awarded as either a reset or a penalty to Edinburgh. Irish had been given, from memory, one free-kick and one penalty despite looking like having the upper-hand all-day.
It was in these circumstances that we entered the final play - scrum to Edinburgh.
Obviously it was reset a couple of times - it'd been that way for the whole match and it was beginning to feel like I might miss the last train back at one point. And then the same old sight of the Edinburgh front-row crumpling and hitting the deck. You knew it was coming... penalty! Hang on! That's a penalty to Irish! Quick as a flash Paddy Jackson took a quick tap and booted the ball into touch.
London Irish 21 - 20 Edinburgh.
It sounds like an absolute classic from the scoreline and the last-minute drama but it wasn't. Mr Gnecchi simply made it a far bittier affair than it needed to be. Edinburgh were in fine form and we played pretty well but the struggle for any continuity made it a scrappy and irritable affair. It felt like there was a real humdinger in there but we never quite got there which was a shame. I don't like to criticise referees so bluntly (no, honestly I don't) but they are part of the entertainment and I thought Sir got it very wrong on Saturday.
A cracking win, though, and the 21/22 European dream is still on - Saracens next week!
As a footnote I have a disturbing occurence to report - with London Irish's return to London being hailed as a welcome return to it's Irish heritage it was with horror that I discovered at half-time that the crowd had drunk the bars dry. Not of the Black Stuff, oh no, the AG was, thankfully still flowing. The London Irish crowd had drunk the stadium dry of... Gin and Tonic! Oh the shame...
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We drunk the ground out of G&T who would of guess that !
Quote:accidentally struck Rob Simmons's head and went forward. Matt Rogerson picked the ball up and got it to Nick Phipps who scored. Sir judged it a knock-on and therefore called Rogerson offside. It felt very much like Mr Gnecchi didn't want the Exiles to win.
Both Phipps and Rogerson were in front of Simmons when the ball hit his head, so played it from an offside position, much the same as if Simmons had kicked it forward and they'd played it. The ref was clear that it came off the head so wasn't a knock on - not sure why the TMO needed to play it through 17 times before confirming though!
Quote:Griff
But if there's no knock-on there's no offside line...
Law 10 - Offside and onside in open play
10.1 - A player is offside in open play if that player is in front of a team-mate who is carrying the ball or who last played it.
Quote:Griff
Sure, I don't have the footage to hand (the youtube highlights are hilariously bad). My recollection is that Rogerson was adjacent to the pass - he might have been in front of Simmonds but he didn't technically play the ball.
Rogerson received the ball from Phipps and pulled it back to Jackson. Jackson's flat pass hit Simmons on the head and went forward. At that point Rogerson was around 4m in front of Jackson and 5m in front of Simmons.
Assuming someone playing the ball has to do so intentionally, the last person to play the ball was Jackson, so Rogerson was offside.
Assuming the ball can be played unintentionally, the last person to play the ball was Simmons, so Rogerson was offside.
I can find some grainy pixels that show this if you like?
If Edinburgh kicked the ball and it hit the back of an oblivious and retreating Irish player's head unintentionally before going in to touch, who would you expect the lineout would be awarded to?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:01:18:13:07:37 by GHA.
It shows how mentally tough and determined the playing squad have become.
A new acronym is needed, DBAICB (don't bet against Irish coming back).
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:01:18:14:35:53 by Jonny_C.
Quote:Lazyboy346
Has anyone found footage of what happened to Rogerson to cause his head injury and loss of scrum cap? I know it happened before the Creevy incident (for which there only appears to be one angle) as Rogerson pointed out that it wasn't looked at, but I missed it live and it seems to have been missing from any highlights packages.
He was also sporting two black eyes in a recent social media post!