A game of two halves?
I’ve got absolutely no intention of doing two things:-1) Attempting a pastiche of Master Scribe’s excellent style or
2) Laboriously describing the match incident by incident.
The reason for the first is obvious. You can’t improve on perfection and you’d be an utter arse to try. The reason for the second is that by now we’ve all undoubtedly read Robin’s report on the SC, Paddy’s on the official site and, probably all the Sunday papers as well. What I’m going to attempt to do, then, is look at various aspects of the overall performance and, perhaps, find explanations for what happened or, failing that, leave the questions hanging like bunches of virulent haemorrhoids.
The basic facts are that Irish won the first half 11 - 3 and then somehow contrived to lose the second 20 - nil. When interviewed, Mike Catt, after making a wry joke about it being a game of two halves, stated quite frankly that it had been a “disgraceful” performance. He went on to say that it was now time for the team to take a good, hard look at themselves and question their individual motivation and performances.
The fact is that the score at half time should have been much more favourable to London Irish. (No, I’m not referring to Riki’s kicking but I will return to this later.) One try from 40 minutes of domination is not acceptable at this level. At any level, come to that. What we saw was the all too familiar sight of passes going to players’ ankles, good passes being fumbled and knocked on, individuals displaying all the signs of “white line fever” and refusing to pass to others better placed to carry on the move, unnecessary offsides and all the other silly infringements that I thought this squad had recognised and put behind them.
As to what can be done about all this I’m not at all sure. Perhaps it’s as simple as Brian pointing out to each and every one that no one gets a starting place by right. I get the impression (and that’s all it is - an impression) that some have maybe got a little complacent after finishing in the top four and earning a place in the Heineken Cup. (Imagine a performance like yesterday’s against Toulouse, if you can face it!) So perhaps some strong words from the coaches to deflate a few egos coupled with a lot more practice of basics.
The situation with Riki is quite hard to understand. He was brought over because Barry (dear Barry, the ultimate Mr.Nice Guy), whilst being a world class dead ball kicker was seen as not really being the sort of no.10 that Irish needed to scale the heights. Riki is. What he ain’t is a world class dead ball kicker. I remember seeing Riki playing in the Super 12 for the Hurricanes a few years back and the commentators made the point that he wasn’t ever going to be a Clarke or a Mehrtens as far as kicking was concerned.
My point being that Brian must have known that there was a problem when he brought him over. So what was the solution going to be? Was there hope that Riki could be turned into something he quite clearly wasn’t? Seems a bit of a gamble. Were there plans for Barry to be somehow accommodated in the side but not at 10? That’s nonsensical, where would he play? Quite!
Working with Dave Alred is a very positive step and perhaps, slowly, Riki will actually get his percentage up to something acceptable but, in the short term, we have a big and potentially costly problem. I hope Brian has the solution.
OK, let’s take a look at Bristol’s first try. A ludicrously ambitious chip by Delon that went down Lemi’s throat. I thought, at the ground, that the resulting try was questionable because Delon seemed to have been done by an arm across the throat which felled him and prevented him tackling Lemi. How misled can we be? Watching the replay of the game this morning it was very clear, on the view from behind the posts, that Delon had, in fact, made rather a meal of it (i.e. he dived).
The reason for mentioning this incident is that I, and I don’t think I’m alone, am not comfortable with Delon at full back. He invariably tackles high. Not only does this leave him exposed to a full-blooded hand-off with the subsequent loss of teeth or a flying knee in the goolies but there is the ever-present risk of a penalty in these circumstances. Bearing in mind that most tackles made by a full back are likely to happen, if not in the 22 itself, in an area that’s at a reasonable kicking distance then this sort of tackling has a very high risk of retribution.
Yes, I know, he’s young and learning but, you know, we don’t have the luxury in this league to let players work out how to tackle and whether or not it’s a sensible option to chip the oncoming defence during the course of crucial matches. I’ve always felt that Delon was much better suited to playing on the wing and, perhaps, that’s where his tackling style came from. It’s often better to smother tackle an opposing winger to prevent the offload but there’s no substitute for going round the knees at full back.
The alternative currently is Michael Horak. Now there’s a man who knows exactly how to tackle. Not as fast as Delon in attack and prone to putting up huge garryowens that slice wildly into touch but, at least, safer in defence. Neither of them seem much in favour of passing to colleagues. Another nice dilemma for Brian.
Bristol’s first penalty in the second half. An unnecessary high tackle from Dom. Probably just a reflex but, as a professional rugby player, shouldn’t you at least be aware that a high tackle near the 22 will bring the punishment of a penalty and, with a kicking machine like Strange on hand, the near certainty of three points away?
I don’t know why Danie was replaced by Russell but we have to assume there was good reason. Robbie then consistently overthrew the entire line out. Why were we calling for ball at the tail when we could have secured good possession at the front or middle?
On the Rugby Club on Thursday Stuart made the very good point that our success last year was largely dependent on good, quick ball to our speedy backs. He went on to say that as KD had departed for Ulster we were without a “dog” to win it on the floor and that possession was therefore likely to be slower. The back row of Leguizamon, Roche and Magne, brilliant as it is in attack, is not best placed to scavenge for ball. A shame we couldn’t get someone like O’Connor when he was available.
All in all it was, as MC said, a disgraceful performance. To my mind we can live with most of what’s mentioned up above if we generate the sort of team spirit and cooperation that we saw from the team last year. There is tremendous potential in our squad. Brian has to get them playing and putting their lives on the line for each other. Big Bob wasn’t on the field today. Was that significant? Does he make a huge difference?
Thank God for Mike Catt, the man is magic. Paul Hodgson, the bravest of the brave and a team player par excellence. Neal Hatley, superman. Topsy Ojo, the sky’s the limit. Kicking aside, Riki Flutey, a great creative talent.
One final topic. Entertainment. Why have we replaced our talisman (Keep it going, Irish) with this third rate end-of-the-pier character Caimh? He only just remembered to welcome Irish back onto the field for the second half, didn’t make any reference to Beefy’s amazing record-tying 174 Premiership performances and held totally incomprehensible dialogues with no one much. He’s a disaster.
And what on earth was that half time “entertainment”? I’m sure they’re all lovely girls but, Jayzus God, how embarrassing was that?
OK. I hope that if nothing else this has provided a few talking points. Feel free to pillory me. I’m used to it.
Not so much Master Scribe as Master Bater.
-- Donkey Boy