Tigers moved into the Premiership Play Off spots after a
hard fought victory away to inform London Irish. The nerve shredding 20-15 win came courtesy
of first half tries from Ben Youngs and Logovi’i Mulipola plus a fantasy second half score
from magic Fijian Vereniki Goneva. All Irish’s points were from penalties, four
from James O’Conner and a singular effort from Ian Humphreys.
Tigers were far from perfect, especially in an error strewn
and panicky final quarter, but showed glimpses of the play that could secure an
11th title. Ben Youngs was
back to near his best, keeping good tempo in the game and accurate with
all bar one kick. Dan Bowden, a late
change for Anthony Allen, was superb knowing when to straighten and when to go
wide. Owen Williams grew into the game
and finished with a glorious side step to beat Geraghty near the end.
But this was not a backs victory. It was forged by the behemoths in the pack.
Irish opened the scoring with the softest of penalties. A bad day was in the offing when no one
claimed the opening kickoff with Deacon pinged at the first ruck.
But Tigers were straight into the game at the
other end. An inch perfect kick from Ben
Youngs gave Tigers territory in the Irish 22. Jamie Gibson blocked the clearance kick and Tigers
were through, only for Deacon’s pass to be kicked dead by Skivington.
Now Tigers had a 5m scrum.
Would it take the 16 re-sets to gain the try, like it did at Welford
Road in November? On the first it went
down, on the second Irish went early, on the third Crane should have scored but
muffed it as Tigers heaved forward. On
the fourth it went down, and on the fifth Tigers again shuddered forwards. Crane controlled this one but was just shy of
the line giving Ben Youngs the chance to take the glory and dive in at the
corner.
Doyle, an Irishman living in London, gave London Irish a
series of inexplicable penalties; James O’Connor screwed the first one wide
right but was on target with his next two attempts taking back the lead 9-5. Tigers showed good fluency at times but
couldn’t consistently hold onto the ball.
Knock ons were aplenty and one good move was pulled back for the game’s
solitary attacking in from the side.
Tigers second try came from a lineout drive. The position had been gained when James O’Connor
used Keiran Low to evade Rob Hawkins tackle following a Ben Youngs kick
through. Deacon claimed the line out
ball and Mulipola clamped on at the back to be driven over. George Skivington almost disrupted it but
as he was already given as offside a penalty try would have been awarded if he
had successfully held it up.
The conversions were difficult, touchline wide right, but
Williams will be disappointed to miss both.
Tigers led 10-9 at half time.
Then we have Goneva’s fantasy. His magic.
His mistake.
Tigers had made a mess of the Irish scrum and Youngs hassled
Allinson into a turnover. Once round the
corner to Crane and then out, Williams passed poorly and Goneva fumbled over
his head. First to clean up his own
mistake he shook off the attentions of O’Connor then the merest hint of a dummy
had Fenby grasping at thin air. A hand
off saw off Humphreys before Treviranus was out paced to the corner.
No other centre in the world would score that try. Probably because most would catch it in
the first place.
Irish came back strongly in the final quarter; gaining a
series of penalties from Doyle. But O’Connor
skewed 2 wide and was replaced with Humphreys for the final kick. These misses let Tigers off but also kept us camped
in our own territory for long periods.
Waldrom entered the fray and was dispatched to the sin bin
straightaway for a dull headed penalty, there can be no complaints he made no
attempt to roll away at all. There was
little danger which made it all the poorer decision from the Exeter bound
backrow.
The thoughts of the 4th try and bonus slipped
from Tigers minds as holding on for the win gained importance. Mele replaced Youngs and kicked any turnover possession
away, whilst Marland Yarde came on and looked a handful. Blaine Scully enhanced his reputation again
with his careful containment of the confident winger.
Irish had one final chance of seizing victory; Tigers had
turned the ball over and Waldrom was due back on, but Mele panicking kicked
poorly. The Exiles countered. From their own half they stormed into the 22
and with 79 minutes on the clock were on our line. Yarde was in acres of space with only an
injured Rob Hawkins guarding him.
Thankfully Treviranus made a right arse of himself; deciding to pick and
go instead, knocking on in the process.
A 4th straight win at the Madejski and 6 wins in
the last 8 Premiership games show some signs of optimism for the future. Mainly we need to just keep winning and worry
about finding our form later.
No comments:
Post a Comment