Review of the Season - Part II
By Griff August 10 2008
In the first part I visited the cup competitions and the roller-coaster of Irish's Heineken Cup campaign. In this second part of my review of the season we turn away from the cup competitions and onto the meat and drink of professional rugby in England - The Guinness Premiership.
In the first part I visited the cup competitions and the roller-coaster of Irish's Heineken Cup campaign. In this second part of my review of the season we turn away from the cup competitions and onto the meat and drink of professional rugby in England - The Guinness Premiership.
The GP is the real indicator of a team's worth. A good run in one or two cups is relatively easy, a good showing in 22 games in possibly the narrowest division in world rugby is another matter entirely. Add into that the sheer gut-wrenching terror of the prospect of relegation for the lowest placed team and you have a real cauldron of judgement for professional rugby sides.
Irish began their campaign at the now traditional Double-Header against Harlequins at Twickenham. In a close encounter Irish showed ambition and a propensity to make mistakes while Quins showed that Dean Richards' pragmatic rugby does a good job of closing teams down. The multi-coloured-ones came away victorious and Irish failed to get a consoling bonus point.
After a disappointing start the prospect of Newcastle coming to the Madejski wasn't one we relished but with no Jonny and a few other notable absences the Falcons really showed no reson for us to be worried. In a rare nil-score Irish took all the points and Newcastle needn't have made the trip.
Irish celebrated this win with a run of losses. A scrappy affair, reminiscent of the LDH game showed Bristol had the ability to work us out and neatralise our threat. In the worst-refereed game of the season Bath stole the win at the Madejski and our visit to Wasps was notable only as the team seeed to fail to join the supporters at Adams Park.
Long time supporters of the Exiles will tell you, the best time to bet on the men-in-green is when they look down-and-out and face an absolutely impossible opponent. So it proved yet again, with form looking like a tail-spin we faced the unbeaten men from Gloucester. A fine win was gained through a massive team effort, the visiting supporters went away confused about how we were doing so poorly so far in the league.
After the cup-enforced gap we travelled to a cold Watford with expectations high. It was a good game but sadly, for once, the rub of the green went against us and Saracens snatched it at the death. The signs were good, though, with the teams starting to show some real promise.
The promise continued with Worcester's visit to the Madejski. We'd seen the Warriors visit three-weeks previously in the EDF where we put their young team to the sword as a warm-up for HC heroics. With the old-guard back in-place Worcester showed a little more mettle and left with a BP but Irish took the win.
It's rare for anyone to go to Welford Road and beat the Tigers but Irish gave it a good go. To come away without a BP was, most agreed, harsh - this year, my frineds, this year...
Sale's New Year trip to Reading showed a couple of things. Firstly Luke McAllister is a class-player. Secondly, though, one player does not a team make. Had any of the other Sharks shown up it might've been a contest but on his own the young Kiwi, switched to fly-half for the first time, couldn't keep Irish back.
The trip to Leeds was an odd one. We watched a now-confident Irish side out-play the Carnegie strugglers comprehensively. We then watch the same "strugglers" put a massive effort in and come terrifyingly close to taking the win away. With the win and a bonus point on the board Irish took their foot completely off the gas and the home side came within 2 points of taking the prize.
Having failed so gallantly at Welford Road it was perhas fitting that on the return visit we sent the stripy-ones away with no points. This was our fifth win in a run in all competitions and it showed that Irish really had the ability to play alongside the big boys. The sixth win came away at Worcester in a bad-tempered affair. It was very close and showed that we still had the ability to be dragged into a fight if we weren't careful.
The seventh win of the run was a reverse of the fixture against Saracens. They came to us this time, we stole the points in a very tight affair. It wasn't pretty but it did put win 7 on the board. Of the run 5 were in the GP, at the start of the year Irish were 10th on 15 points, by now we were 7th on 36 and worries about having to fight for survival a the end of the season were easing.
All runs have to end and it was almost inevitable to end when we went to Kingsholm. With the run of form it was possible, possibly for the first time ever, for Irish supporters to believe that we could win at Castle Grim. With the fact that Gloucester were having injury problems we all, foolishly, thought we'd go there and come away with the points. It wasn't to be. A couple of interesting refereeing decisions gave the young Glaws side some heart and some suicidal play by Irish let them continue the rout.
Wasps joined us for a massive "St Patrick's Day" party. Again the GP crowd record fell, much AG was drunk and, of course, we lost. The rain and freezing weather pretty much summed it up. The trip to Bath the following Saturday shwoed new cover signing Ross Broadfoot return to his old club and put in a spirited performance which, while not enough for the win, was enough to bag us a losing BP.
We then won the rest of the season. Simple as that. Bristol at home, Newcastle away (not so emphatically as the home game), Harlequins at home, relegated Leeds destroyed at the Madejski and the final week's heroics taking away of Sale's hopes of top-four qualification in their back-yard.
We ended a pretty-good season 7th. It was quite disappointing, especially given the fabulous runs after the New Year. It's obvious that the damage was done early doors. Had we not lost controversially to Bath, or annoyingly to Tigers, Bristol or Saracens away, even had we put in a good first-week against Quins we'd have been sixth and had the prize of Heineken Cup rugby again - it was that close. We didn't pick-up enough bonus points either - only 2 try BPs and 5 losing BPs. Harlequins, four points above us in the table gained 15...
So bring on the next one. If we go into it at the pace we finished the last one then we'll not have to worry about a slow start. So long as we keep that momentum going though the entire season - and keep our key players healthy - the GP title beckons. Doddle!
Irish began their campaign at the now traditional Double-Header against Harlequins at Twickenham. In a close encounter Irish showed ambition and a propensity to make mistakes while Quins showed that Dean Richards' pragmatic rugby does a good job of closing teams down. The multi-coloured-ones came away victorious and Irish failed to get a consoling bonus point.
After a disappointing start the prospect of Newcastle coming to the Madejski wasn't one we relished but with no Jonny and a few other notable absences the Falcons really showed no reson for us to be worried. In a rare nil-score Irish took all the points and Newcastle needn't have made the trip.
Irish celebrated this win with a run of losses. A scrappy affair, reminiscent of the LDH game showed Bristol had the ability to work us out and neatralise our threat. In the worst-refereed game of the season Bath stole the win at the Madejski and our visit to Wasps was notable only as the team seeed to fail to join the supporters at Adams Park.
Long time supporters of the Exiles will tell you, the best time to bet on the men-in-green is when they look down-and-out and face an absolutely impossible opponent. So it proved yet again, with form looking like a tail-spin we faced the unbeaten men from Gloucester. A fine win was gained through a massive team effort, the visiting supporters went away confused about how we were doing so poorly so far in the league.
After the cup-enforced gap we travelled to a cold Watford with expectations high. It was a good game but sadly, for once, the rub of the green went against us and Saracens snatched it at the death. The signs were good, though, with the teams starting to show some real promise.
The promise continued with Worcester's visit to the Madejski. We'd seen the Warriors visit three-weeks previously in the EDF where we put their young team to the sword as a warm-up for HC heroics. With the old-guard back in-place Worcester showed a little more mettle and left with a BP but Irish took the win.
It's rare for anyone to go to Welford Road and beat the Tigers but Irish gave it a good go. To come away without a BP was, most agreed, harsh - this year, my frineds, this year...
Sale's New Year trip to Reading showed a couple of things. Firstly Luke McAllister is a class-player. Secondly, though, one player does not a team make. Had any of the other Sharks shown up it might've been a contest but on his own the young Kiwi, switched to fly-half for the first time, couldn't keep Irish back.
The trip to Leeds was an odd one. We watched a now-confident Irish side out-play the Carnegie strugglers comprehensively. We then watch the same "strugglers" put a massive effort in and come terrifyingly close to taking the win away. With the win and a bonus point on the board Irish took their foot completely off the gas and the home side came within 2 points of taking the prize.
Having failed so gallantly at Welford Road it was perhas fitting that on the return visit we sent the stripy-ones away with no points. This was our fifth win in a run in all competitions and it showed that Irish really had the ability to play alongside the big boys. The sixth win came away at Worcester in a bad-tempered affair. It was very close and showed that we still had the ability to be dragged into a fight if we weren't careful.
The seventh win of the run was a reverse of the fixture against Saracens. They came to us this time, we stole the points in a very tight affair. It wasn't pretty but it did put win 7 on the board. Of the run 5 were in the GP, at the start of the year Irish were 10th on 15 points, by now we were 7th on 36 and worries about having to fight for survival a the end of the season were easing.
All runs have to end and it was almost inevitable to end when we went to Kingsholm. With the run of form it was possible, possibly for the first time ever, for Irish supporters to believe that we could win at Castle Grim. With the fact that Gloucester were having injury problems we all, foolishly, thought we'd go there and come away with the points. It wasn't to be. A couple of interesting refereeing decisions gave the young Glaws side some heart and some suicidal play by Irish let them continue the rout.
Wasps joined us for a massive "St Patrick's Day" party. Again the GP crowd record fell, much AG was drunk and, of course, we lost. The rain and freezing weather pretty much summed it up. The trip to Bath the following Saturday shwoed new cover signing Ross Broadfoot return to his old club and put in a spirited performance which, while not enough for the win, was enough to bag us a losing BP.
We then won the rest of the season. Simple as that. Bristol at home, Newcastle away (not so emphatically as the home game), Harlequins at home, relegated Leeds destroyed at the Madejski and the final week's heroics taking away of Sale's hopes of top-four qualification in their back-yard.
We ended a pretty-good season 7th. It was quite disappointing, especially given the fabulous runs after the New Year. It's obvious that the damage was done early doors. Had we not lost controversially to Bath, or annoyingly to Tigers, Bristol or Saracens away, even had we put in a good first-week against Quins we'd have been sixth and had the prize of Heineken Cup rugby again - it was that close. We didn't pick-up enough bonus points either - only 2 try BPs and 5 losing BPs. Harlequins, four points above us in the table gained 15...
So bring on the next one. If we go into it at the pace we finished the last one then we'll not have to worry about a slow start. So long as we keep that momentum going though the entire season - and keep our key players healthy - the GP title beckons. Doddle!
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Re: Review of the Season - Part II
Posted by: AMS (IP Logged)
Date: 10/08/2008 19:28
Not just the GP title, but the ECC too, Griff!
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