London Irish Rugby Team

One That Got Away
There will be few teams this season that will destroy the Premiership Champion’s lineout the way London Irish did this afternoon and come out on the wrong end of the result. In the first half Bob Casey and Nick Kennedy reigned supreme, and in the second Ryan Strudwick partnered Kennedy to equally telling effect.

Irish used the possession they won to create chances but were undone by the boot of Mark Van Gisbergen and Alex King. The latter replaced James Brooks at fly half for Wasps in the 72nd minute and just seven minutes later kicked a well struck dropped goal from 30 metres to regain the lead for the visitors. Van Gisbergen added a further penalty in injury time to add a little gloss to their score.

Prior to the exciting finale the game had been full of incident; in fact an incident that was to impact on the game happened hours before kick-off. Barry Everitt turned his ankle in kicking practice during the morning. The ankle appeared to have settled, however during the pre-match warm-up it went again forcing the fly-half to withdraw. This meant an earlier than expected debut for Riki Flutey who just arrived from New Zealand on Monday. The Maori turned in an exceptional performance in the circumstances that deservedly earned him the London Irish “Man of the Match” award.

The fly half’s contribution was matched by a number of others on the home team. Shane Geraghty in his first home start of the season contributed to a lively back line and capped his afternoon with Irish’s opening try. He was unlucky to be sin-binned just before half-time. In the pack David Paice showed that he can compete with the best at hooker, Declan Danaher tackled tirelessly throughout and Juan Manuel Leguizamon at No 8 showed promise of exciting things to come.

Irish got off to the best possible start when Geraghty waltzed through a series of gaps in the Wasps defence to score his team’s first try in the 8th minute. Flutey converted and added a penalty three minutes later to give the Exiles a temporary lead of 10-0.

Mark Van Gisbergen, who has just been selected in the England squad for the autumn internationals, kicked the first of his five penalties in the 14th minute. The former New Zealander and Irish’s recent Maori arrival were to dominate the rest of the scoring in the first half with the Wasps full back out-scoring Irish’s fly half by three more penalties to one.

In a half full of incident and hard tackling Irish gave as good as they received and could consider themselves unlucky not to have added another try in the 27th minute when Scott Staniforth was called back for a knock on when clean through. The Australian made a try-saving tackle on Tom Voyce just before half-time when the Wasps player intercepted a loose pass by Rob Hardwick.

It was during this period of visitors’ pressure that Geraghty was sin-binned for handling in the ruck.

The game was just in first half injury time when Justin Bishop had to leave the pitch with a damaged finger. He was replaced by another of Irish’s Academy stars Topsy Ojo four minutes before Mr Rowden blew for half-time with the score at 16-12 to Irish.

Wasps opened the scoring in second half in the 47th minute when scrum half Eoin Reddan darted over from the back of a scrum five metres from the Irish line. Although Van Gisbergen missed the conversion the five points were enough to give the visitors the lead for the first time in the game.

Two minutes later Riki Flutey restored the lead to the home side with a penalty to set up an exciting passage of play. Wasps were to register the next score when Jonny O’Connor capitalised on a break by Ayoola Erinle and raced through to touch down right of the posts for his team’s second try.

Irish continued to compete ferociously at the breakdown and unsettled the Champions. Flutey’s influence on the game grew with a display of passing off either hand that augurs well for the future. Delon Armitage and Topsy Ojo combined on a number of occasions to threaten the visitors and was rewarded in the 71st minute when Ojo capitalised on a clever cross kick by the Irish full back to score a try. Flutey converted to give Irish a 26-24 lead with nine minutes of normal time remaining.

That was when Alex King arrived on the scene to such telling effect. His drop goal and Van Gisbergen’s penalty goal securing a lucky win for the visitors.

Speaking after the game London Irish Director of Rugby, Brian Smith said: “I am very pleased with the efforts of the players. We did enough to win, all of us are very disappointed to come up short. We selected a team that was capable of winning the game and we played to win, but it was not to be today.”

London Irish - London Wasps 26-30

London Irish
Michael Collins (Neal Hatley ,67 mins), David Paice, Rob Hardwick, Bob Casey (Ryan Strudwick ,40 mins), Nick Kennedy, Paul Gustard, Declan Danaher, Juan Manuel Leguizamon (Phil Murphy ,67 mins), Paul Hodgson, Riki Flutey, Justin Bishop (Topsy Ojo ,42 mins), Shane Geraghty, Rodd Penney, Scott Staniforth, Delon Armitage.

METE
LI: 1 Shane Geraghty (C), 1 Topsy Ojo (A)
LW: 1 Eoin Reddan (MM), 1 Jonny O'Connor (3L)

TRASFORMAZIONI
LI: 2 Riki Flutey (MA)
LW: 1 MArk Van Gisbergen (E)

PUNIZIONI
LI: 4 Riki Flutey
LW: 5 Mark Van Gisbergen

DROP
LW: 1 Alex King (MA)