London Irish 23 Worcester Warriors 16 - A Perfect Christmas Present

Paddy Lennon reports from Madejski Stadium.

The London Irish team delivered a perfect Christmas present to all concerned with the club at Madejski Stadium yesterday.  A six point victory over a courageous Worcester Warriors team earned the Exiles four precious points that lifted them two places in the Guinness Premiership table.

Irish had to work hard for their win, not only did they have the recently reinforced Warriors to contend with, they also had the weather.  The fog that had shrouded the

Thames Valley from Saturday evening persisted through Sunday and hung around Madejski Stadium for the duration of the game.  While spectators struggled to follow the action at times, the players had to contend with a greasy surface and a slippery ball that made accurate passing difficult.

As expected the Worcester team bore little resemblance to the one that visited the Reading stadium three weeks earlier for the EDF Energy Cup match between the two clubs.  Sunday’s team featured recently arrived All Blacks Rico Gear on the right wing and Sam Tuitupou at inside centre.  Among the forwards was Bob Casey and Nick Kennedy’s great adversary, Craig Gillies in the second row and Pat Sanderson at openside flanker. 

Irish were unfortunate to lose Mike Catt to a leg injury in Saturday’s captain’s run.  His place at out half was taken by Shane Geraghty.

Irish got off to a good start when a Delon Armitage penalty secured an attacking lineout position seven metres from the Worcester try line on the Irish right.  Bob Casey won the first of a number of tussles with Craig Gillies and Irish set a rolling maul.  The ball was recycled to Steffon Armitage who burrowed over the line but was judged to have been help up.  From the resulting five metre scrum the home pack went for a series of pick-and-go moves which culminated in Richard Skuse diving over for his first try for the club.  Delon Armitage added the conversion to give Irish a 7-0 lead after only four minutes.

Worcester struck back in just three minutes through a Shane Drahm penalty when Irish were caught offside.  That was the signal for a frenetic passage of play as both teams tried to secure attacking field positions on another excellent playing surface and cope with the conditions especially in the set pieces where honours were even on balance.  Warriors were causing Irish problems in the scrum whereas the Casey-Kennedy combination was having the better of the Gillies-Bowley partnership.  Kennedy stole an important Worcester ball in the 25th minute.

The Irish captain led by example throughout and was directly responsible for winning a lineout that led to an Irish penalty attempt in the 29th minute.  Delon Armitage’s kick went narrowly wide, however three minutes later he sent the ball between the posts for his first penalty of the game.

The balance of play was in the Exiles’ favour at this stage and the pressure led to the Warriors’ hooker, Aleki Lutui being sin-binned for killing the ball in the 33rd minute.  As is so often the case the one man disadvantage encouraged the visitors to raise their game and Marcel Garvey was unlucky when he broke down the left to be tripped by Delon Armitage when the winger tried to follow up his kick ahead.  Armitage was sent to the sin-bin for his efforts and Shane Drahm reduced his team’s deficit by successfully kicking the resulting penalty for a half-time score of 10-6.

The fog continued to swirl around the stadium bowl as the second half got underway.  Five minutes into the half Tuitupou announced his arrival in the Premiership in the most dramatic way when, exploiting the space left by Delon Armitage’s temporary absence, the former All Black centre cut a fine angle through midfield to touch down just right of the posts.  Drahm added the extras to give the visitors the lead 13-10.

Realising that they had a contest on their hands Irish had to work hard to gain and retain possession.  Declan Danaher led the efforts of the back row while Seilala Mapusua with the tireless support of Gonzalo Tiesi tackled and attacked through midfield.  The team’s combined efforts were rewarded as Worcester were forced to concede penalties.  Delon Armitge kicked two vital penalty goals in the 52nd and 62nd minutes, the latter regaining the lead for the Exiles.

Worcester refused to submit and Irish were fortunate when Drahm missed with a penalty attempt in the 64th minute, his second attempt just three minutes was successful and levelled the score once again at 16-16.

With 12 minutes to go the game was there for the taking and it was a case of which team wanted the win most or which one would benefit from an error in the conditions. 

As the match clock relentlessly moved into the final ten minutes it was Irish that were the more threatening although Warriors always looked dangerous on the counter-attack. Topsy Ojo had to use his considerable pace to prevent a try-scoring opportunity in the 72nd minute.  It was his fellow backs that were to orchestrate the crucial match-winning score five minutes later.  A break from midfield to the left wing by Seilala Mapusua saw the ball pass to Tagicakibau.  He managed to shake off a tackle by Gear before racing over into the left corner for Irish’s second try leaving Delon Armitage with a very difficult conversion from just inside the touchline.  To the full back’s credit he struck the ball cleanly and sent it between the uprights to give his team maximum benefit from the score.

Irish had to hold their nerve in the final minutes in the difficult conditions and they did.  Referee Rowden’s final whistle brought proceedings to a close with the score at 23-16.    

Scorers: London Irish: Tries:  Skuse (4), Tagicakibau, (77); Conversions: Aremitage D 2. Penalty goals: Armitage D 3 (32, 52, 62). Worcester Warriors: Try: Tuitupou (46); Conversion: Drahm. Penalty goals: Drahm 3 (7, 40, 67).

Scoring sequence(London Irish first):  7-0, 7-3, 10-3, 10-6 (half-time) 10-13, 13-13, 16-13, 16-16, 23-16.

London Irish: D Armitage (sin-bin 39-49), T Ojo, G Tiesi, S Mapusua, S Tagicakibau, S Geraghty, P Richards (rep: P Hodgson, 59), C Dermody (rep: T Lea’aetoa, 59), D Paice, R Skuse, N Kennedy (rep: J Hudson, 74), B Casey (captain), D Danaher, S Armitage (rep: R Thorpe, 68), P Murphy rep J Leguizamon, 59).

Worcester: C Pennell (rep: T Delport, 63),  R Gear, D Rasmussen, S Tuitupou, M Garvey, S Drahm, M Powell, M Mullan, A Lutui (sin-bin: 33-43), T Taumoepeau, W Bowley, C Gillies, N Talei (rep: D Hickey, 72), P Sanderson (captain), K Horstman.               

Referee: Mr Ashley Rowden (RFU)

Attendance: 9,266

Match Statistics

T C P DG Player         Dermody         Paice 1       Skuse         Kennedy         Casey         Danaher         S Armitage         P Murphy         Richards         Geraghty 1       Tagicakibau         Mapusua         Tiesi         Ojo   2 3   D Armitage         Lea'aetoa         Mackie         Hudson         Leguizamon         Thorpe         Hodgson         Gereghty	Position 1. L/Prop 2. Hooker 3. T/Prop 4. Lock 5. Lock 6. B/Flanker 7. O/Flanker 8. No 8 9. Scrum-half 10. Fly-half 11. Wing 12. Centre 13. Centre 14. Wing 15. Fullback 16. Sub 17. Sub 18. Sub 19. Sub 20. Sub 21. Sub 22. Sub	Player T C P DG Mullan         Lutui         Taumoepeau         Rawlinson         Gillies         Talei         Sanderson         Horstmann         Powell         Drahm   1 3   Garvey         Tuitupou 1       Rasmussen         Gear         Pennell         Morris         Fortey         Bowely         Hickey         Runciman         Crichton         Benjamin