An Eds Diary - 4th November 2003

By BrianC
August 8 2004

Frayed nerves all round as we manage to narrowly defeat Sale. In the best game thus far of the Rugby World Cup Ireland very nearly beat Australia.

An Ed’s Diary – 4th November 2003

Sale Sharks 26 – 28 London Irish. Tight result and frayed nerves aside this was a very impressive performance. We were ahead for almost all of the game, falling one point behind on 80 minutes. Three minutes into injury time Barry managed a drop goal. Unlike last season we kept our composure and discipline to hold on for the win. Indeed on the stroke of full time Bish almost scored another try just losing the ball before he could ground it.

The match was televised so I was able to watch it whilst in Belfast along with a few other members of the LI family. I have to say I was very impressed. Our defence looked very solid, yes we shipped two tries but one at the start was somewhat unlucky, from Horak being charged down, the second at the end came after an extended period of pressure. Last seasons team would have shipped a lot more than that.

We only scored one try but it was a cracker, very reminiscent of our style of play in the season we won the cup. Lots of recycling the ball, it was moved the width if the pitch twice before the gap was created and Rob Harwick of all people went over to score. If we can string performances like that together for the rest of the season I am very optimistic. At this stage with some tough games behind us we are sitting fourth in the ZP, a HC place appears to be within our grasp.

After the match we learnt that O’Sheasby has had a serious eye injury and will probably be out for three months. I’ve met his parents on several occasions and know that they do worry about Chris picking up injuries. My heart goes out to them and Chris himself. Initial reports are that he will make a full recovery, let’s hope so.

As if that match wasn’t tense enough what I and all other Irish supporters experienced the following morning will go down as one of the games we will remember for all time. The final score was Australia 17 – 16 Ireland. In a match that the bookies expected us to lose by 20 points the boys in green came out and took the game to them. We could have won it, had we done so the prize would have been a quarter final against Scotland and a likely place in the semi. As it is we now face France, a tough job but if they play again like they did on Saturday you never know.

The site managed 227k hits in October, the same month last year we had just under 200k so the growth of 13% on last year appears moderate. Until of course you factor in that last October we had our world tour of Toulouse. Indeed the 200k we managed last October was substantially higher than any of the proceeding or following months. We first broke the 200k barrier in March, St. Patricks and all that, and have done so several times since then. Overall the growth figures are very encouraging.

Next weekend we are away at Saracens. Given their dire start to the season this is a game which on paper we should win. Mind you most of the games we have won this season are ones that on paper we should have lost!