With a little imagination, I could envision what it would have been like in the “good old days” at Sunbury watching London Irish playing on a wet and windy winter’s day. Actually the last part would take quite a bit of imagination as the weather condition were dry, “HOT” and with just an intermittent slight breeze.

 “Would there be a colour clash?” was asked as several Nottingham supporters were wearing green shirts. I did ask if it was Lincoln Green but they didn’t know (the team did have a Sheriff though.) As it turned out, London Irish would wear their red/white shirts, black shorts and white socks. Nottingham would be wearing white shirts, blue shorts and green/white hooped socks. Unfortunately, London Irish’s shirts weren’t numbered so some confusion arose later about one of their tries.

Paddy Lennon introduced the teams and a special welcome was made to the returning Director of Rugby of Nottingham, who was London Irish’s 2002 Powergen Cup winner Glen Delaney.

There’d be a slight change to the programme, with Faan Rautenbach starting instead of Dan Murphy.

So …

LI :

ARMITAGE Delon, OJO Topsy, IRELAND Mark, MORDT Nils, TAGICAKIBAU Sailosi, STAUNTON Jeremy, HODGSON Paul, RAUTENBACH Faan, COETZEE Danie, SKUSE Richard, HUDSON James, ROCHE Kieron, ARMITAGE Steffon, THORPE Richard, MURPHY Phil.

Replacements:

CANTY Nick, CUDMORE Luke, FISHER John, LUMBY James, PARKER Tom. MURPHY Dan, REID Sandy.

Nottingham :

NIRMALENDRAN Rohan, SAVAGE Andrew, SMITH Matt, MOLENAAR Tim (Capt), DODGE Alex, THOMPSON Ben, PILGRIM Chris, PARR Matt, DUFFEY Joe, HALL Nigel, RAVEN Sam, ROUSE Nic, SHERRIFF Luke, SANDHU Navdeep, MONTAGU Dan.

Replacements:

BYETT David, EGGLESHAW Phil, GREEN Rob, HAMMOND Craig, HAYTER Charlie, HOPKINS Ryan, JACKSON David, NELSON Will, RHODES David, STENHOUSE Neil, WHEELER James, WILCOX Pete.

To the match itself.

Watching from the stands, London Irish played the 1^st half from right to left. Nottingham kicked off and knocked on the kick resulting in a scrum to London Irish. The 1^st scrum was dominated by London Irish and this was a theme which would continue throughout the match. After winning it though, Jeremy Staunton made one of certainly not many bad kicks to touch.

2 minutes into the game, Tim Molenaar chose an excellent line and ran through some not very good tackling to score the 1^st points of the game and the resultant conversion by Ben Thompson made the score London Irish 0 Nottingham 7.

The restart saw Nottingham winning the ball and their #3 made an excellent run eventually reaching London Irish’s 5m line. Jeremy Staunton’s kick this time though was an excellent touch finder to Nottingham’s own 10m line.

After 6 minutes, London Irish made their 1^st attacking move. A fine run by Paul Hodgson was eventually to break down when his pass to Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10m out, was called forward. London Irish pushed early at the scrum and Nottingham were awarded a penalty which they took quickly and London Irish were again penalised. This time for not retreating 10m.

As the half continued, London Irish’s pack continued to dominate. A scrum was won and quick ball along the line to the right saw Topsy Ojo tap tackled 7m out with the resultant lineout to Nottingham.

More attacking play by London Irish saw Nottingham penalised and Jeremy Staunton’s kick to the Nottingham 5m line gave London Irish a good attacking opportunity from the lineout. The ball was caught cleanly and driven over the line. The try was awarded with Dani Coetzee coming up with the ball. Jeremy Staunton converted to make it London Irish 7 Nottingham 7.

London Irish won the restart and Jeremy Staunton cleared to Nottingham’s 10m line. Good play from the resultant line out by Nottingham saw them advance down their left hand side but the ball was stolen at a ruck and Topsy Ojo started a good quick passing move right to left. Sailosi Tagicakibau’s inside pass freed Delon Armitage to cross the try line and Jeremy Staunton continued his fine kicking display to convert the try to make it London Irish 14 Nottingham 7 after 15 minutes.

It wasn’t for any particular reason that the London Irish centres hadn’t been mentioned yet in my notes. Whenever they had the ball it was in the middle of good passing moves. However, the first time I do mention them was to write that Mike Ireland was “clobbered” hard by a good clean tackle. From now on though, he gets a few mentions, starting with a try. After a cross field kick right to left to Sailosi Tagicakibau, which unfortunately goes into touch on the Nottingham 5m line, their box kick after the lineout is caught by Delon Armitage who starts another excellent passing (and supporting) move which ends with Mike Ireland’s 1^st try of the day just to the right hand side of the posts after 18 minutes. Jeremy Staunton then converts to make it London Irish 21 Nottingham 7

After 22minutes, Faan Rautenbach was substituted by Dan Murphy. (Fears were allayed at half time when I was told it wasn’t for an injury but just because the management wanted to introduce him gradually into the pre season games.)

24minutes in and London Irish won a Nottingham scrum against the head. Paul Hodgson was quickly tackled though and then Nottingham were penalised for a high tackle on Delon Armitage.

After 25 minutes, Nottingham get onto the scoreboard again. Andrew Savage chooses another good line to break the London Irish defence. His try is converted by Ben Thompson to make it London Irish 21 Nottingham 14. I would say it was bad tackling by London Irish that allowed him through, but, in order for it to be bad, it has to be attempted first. In this case it wasn’t.

After 30 minutes, London Irish have another lineout 5m out from the Nottingham line. Another catch, driving maul and try off the back by Danie Coetzee. This time though, Jeremy Staunton misses the conversion to leave the score at London Irish 26 Nottingham 14.

It was 32 minutes into the game before I realised that Steffon had been quiet. It was then I realised that that was because the forwards hadn’t been involved in any back line moves. Was that why the passing seemed to be so slick and secure? Again though, after writing someone’s name in my notes they were to appear shortly afterwards in them when, I quote Jack saying “Steffon Leaps like a Salmon” as he took clean lineout ball at the back on the line. I think it was a tired salmon though, as his feet hardly left the ground as the ball was overthrown to the back of the lineout.

Just before half time, London Irish spurn a chance to score as Paul Hodgson is penalised for holding on 5m out after receiving the ball flicked though Phil Murphy’s legs at the back of the scrum.

So half time and London Irish lead by 12. I thought they certainly dominated the half with Nottingham’s tries coming through good running lines on their part but poor tacking on London Irish’s. As for London Irish, the forwards were dominating but Paul Hodgson seemed to have little time to release the ball at scrums and at breakdowns with the Nottingham forwards getting to him like whippets out of the trap. The backs looked slick and quick, with passing moves invariably going to hand (though occasionally forward according to the officials.)

The 2^nd half was to be a more scrappy affair than the 1^st though.

Shortly into the half, Dan Murphy was yellow carded for either a high tackle, not retreating 10m or a combination of both.

4 minutes in and Paul Hodgson continued where he left off last season (and the season before) making try saving tackles. As it turns out though, play was brought back for a Delon Armitage attempted tackle/shoulder charge on the London Irish 10m line which Nottingham kick to touch.

7minutes in sees Steffon Armitage take a knock, and he is subsequently substituted with Luke Cudmore.

As in the 1^st half, after Nottingham’s bright start, London Irish go on to dominate. After a good passing move right to left, Jeremy Staunton changes the direction with a good inside ball to Mark Ireland who scores his 2^nd try of the day by the posts. Jeremy converts to make it London Irish 33 Nottingham 14.

After 13 minutes, Nottingham are reduced to 14 men as their #6 is yellow carded for repeated infringements by the team at the breakdown. The resultant Penalty results in Mark Ireland’s hat-trick try as he makes a good strong run while having several Nottingham players hanging on to him. Again, Jeremy Staunton converts to make it London Irish 40 Nottingham 14.

The half continued to be a more scrappy affair than the 1^st though. Was it because the forwards were getting themselves involved in backs moves? Certainly a “delayed” pass by James Hudson to Topsy Ojo meant that after an, up until then, good passing move, Topsy this time had defenders on him as soon as he got the ball and the opportunity was missed.

Richard Thorpe continued to have a good game in the forwards. And after Nottingham only just hold on to one of their own scrums after London Irish push them back 5m, he made a good steal of their ball in the resultant confusion.

After 22minutes, Topsy Ojo was replaced by Nick Canty and the officials call a well deserved tea break.

Danie Coetzee is then replaced after turning his ankle and scrums become uncontested for the remainder of the game as London Irish don’t have a replacement hooker on the bench.

33 minutes in ( I told you it was scrappy) and London Irish have a good move up the middle. It doesn’t continue though and scrappier handling eventually sees the ball moved out left before being knocked on in the corner spurning a good try scoring opportunity.

As the half draws to a close, Nottingham are awarded a penalty which they kick to London Irish’s right hand corner. A good catch and drive by them results in a try. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the name of their try scorer. The missed conversion meant the final score was London Irish 40 Nottingham 19.

All in all, a good display by London Irish, especially in the 1^st half. I can’t help feeling that the conditions eventually got to both teams though. The players certainly seemed to be feeling the heat. 2^nd half substitutions certainly contributed to the scrappiness of the half and after Danie left the field and the game went to uncontested scrums, London Irish lost their dominance in that area of play.

Danie was seen wearing a protective cast on his foot after the game but he says it was just precautionary and he’d be having a scan to check on exactly what the damage is. Brian Smith was hoping it was just a strain.

I went to the bar after the game with 3 thoughts. One was that I’d be happy to see the backs we had that day playing together next season in the GP. The 2nd was, why can’t we have Sunbury bar prices at the Madejski. And the 3^rd …. I’m bringing a drum to ALL future matches … Let someone else write the reports.

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