An Eds Diary - 11th November 2003

By BrianC
August 10 2004

Victory away at Saracens sees us move up to third in the table. An incident during this game gets both sets of supporters talking.

An Ed’s Diary – 11th November 2003

Saracens 31 – 34 London Irish. Whilst in the end it was a tight scoreline Sarries scored a try with the last movement of the game so it wasn’t quite as nerve wracking as last weeks game against Sale. What was very impressive is how, despite going 20 – 8 down, we held our nerve and came back at them. The team this season really do seem to believe in themselves, a HC spot is most definatley within our grasp, we are currently third in the table equal in points with the second placed team Quins.

One incident in the match has had caused quite a lot of controversy. The Saracens fly half Andy Goode, who had been playing really well, was flattened by Ryan Strudwick as he received a hospital pass. Initially the referee saw nothing wrong and allowed play to continue but as Goode was laid out he stopped play. After speaking to the linesman Ryan was binned and goode was strechered off.

Both our and the Sarries boards have been busy with discussion on the event. Opinions range from ‘Strudwick is a thug, he should have a long ban’ to ‘It was a fair tackle, the crowd got to the linesman, it shouldn’t even have been a penalty. I’ve avoided comment as I didn’t see the event. No doubt if there is a citing we’ll know soon enough.

In the last week we’ve had lots of messages of support for O’Sheasby from all the rugby community. These have been passed onto him and the feedback we’ve had is that the messages are greatly appreciated. Whilst the initial news is encouraging I, and I’m sure a lot of my fellow supporters, find myself wondering if we’ll ever see him playing a game. Sale player Chris Jones has been cited, we’re still waiting for the outcome.

Ireland’s RWC is over, they were slaughtered 43 – 21 by France in the quarter final. The final score flatters Ireland somewhat as at one stage early in the second half France were 37 – 0 ahead. England will play France in the semis this weekend having survived a scare against Wales, eventually beating them 28 – 17. The press seem to be getting on Englands back and the bookies have brought their odds out to 2/1 from 5/4. I can’t help feeling that they have better performances to come.

On Saturday we are at Gloucester in the Powergen cup. I hope I’m wrong but it could be a very short cup run this year.