Challenge Cup Pool 5: London Irish v Edinburgh Rugby, 12 December

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London Irish v Edinburgh Rugby
Saturday 12 December 2015
KO: 15:00
Madejski Stadium, Reading

Live on [tbc]

Referee Leighton Hodges (Wales)
Touch Judge 1 Neil Hennessy (Wales)
Touch Judge 2 Rhys Thomas (Wales)
Fourth Official Dean Richards (England)
Assessor Martin Fox (England)
Citing Commissioner Alberto Recaldini (Italy)

A. Head to Head

1 Played 1
0 Wins 1
1 Losses 0
0 Draws 0
18 Points 23

B. Recent Form

Sunday 5 April 2015
London Irish 18 - 23 Edinburgh

C. Teams

London Irish

15. Sean Maitland*; 14. Alex Lewington; 13. Aseli Tikoirotuma*; 12. Johnny Williams; 11. Andrew Fenby; 10. Shane Geraghty*; 9. Brendan McKibbin; 1. Tom Court*; 2. Gerard Ellis; 3. Ben Franks*; 4. Eoin Sheriff; 5. Jebb Sinclair*; 6. Luke Narraway (Captain)*; 7. Conor Gilsenan; 8. Ofisa Treviranus*

16. Jimmy Stevens; 17. Tom Smallbone; 18. Leo Halavatau; 19. David Sis; 20. Blair Cowan*; 21. Darren Allinson; 22. Theo Brophy Clews; 23. Dominic Waldouck

Edinburgh Rugby

15 Dougie Fife
14 Tom Brown
13 Michael Allen
12 Andries Strauss
11 Otulea Katoa
10 Greig Tonks
9 Nathan Fowles

1 Rory Sutherland
2 Neil Cochrane (captain)
3 John Andress
4 Anton Bresler
5 Alex Toolis
6 Jamie Ritchie
7 Hamish Watson
8 Cornell Du Preez

16 George Turner
17 Grant Shiells
18 Simon Berghan
19 Magnus Bradbury
20 Chris Dean
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22 Blair Kinghorn
23 Damien Hoyland

RDW_Scotland wrote:How has Maitland been for you lot? It doesn't look like he's had regular gametime so far?

Will be a great test for young Rory Sutherland at loosehead - he looks a Scotland star of the future and will get a stern test against Franks.

Watson V Cowan is a straight shootout for the Scotland squad too.

I'm not so sure. I think Cowan will take the 6 jersey and be seen in that role going forward, with Watson a more direct replacement for Hardie.

Maitland was eased in after the World Cup, then got injured out in grenoble, so we've not seen masses of him, but has looked good in the limited time he's had. Hopefully he will get a run of a few games going now and we'll see the best of him.

Margin_Walker wrote:The only one I'm not 100% on is Allinson as he apparently played Wales U20. These days that ties them as they have no A team. Not sure when the A team was disbanded though.

That isn't a given. I wish it was clearer, but it also depends on who he played against. I believe he is only tied to Wales if he played against a team that was also the effective A team of that nation.

99.9% sure that Allinson and Fenby are both EQ.

SirBurger wrote:99.9% sure that Allinson and Fenby are both EQ.

Fenby got English family then?

Would be great if they just kept a list somewhere, rather than just have people guess all the time.

Looking forward to seeing how the backline goes tomorrow. It's probably the one I'd want to see in the league.

Pretty sure he does and he went to Newcastle Uni and played for Blaydon for 5 years so would qualify on residency anyway.

Is that how residency works or would it not have reset when he went back to Wales with Scarlets?

Oh, maybe you're right. I thought it meant he would be fine, but perhaps you are correct.

27 minutes in, Irish 3 tries to the good, 19-6.

26-6 at half time, try bonus point secured. Need to make sure we don't switch off second half.

Glad we put out a strong team for this. If they can hang on for a decent win and ideally deny Edinburgh a BP, we can look to build some confidence and momentum back into the league.

Still got a job to do second half though.

38-6 to London Irish. A real pumping by all accounts and Edinburgh were apparently very poor.

I said before the game that it didn't really matter what happened but it is a real shame we were so poor.

It also means Solomons will once again most likely give up all hope on our reserve players and flog the first team squad all season!

Assuming we'll put out our first team next weekend I'm hoping we won't see the same result

RDW_Scotland wrote:38-6 to London Irish. A real pumping by all accounts and Edinburgh were apparently very poor.

I said before the game that it didn't really matter what happened but it is a real shame we were so poor.

It also means Solomons will once again most likely give up all hope on our reserve players and flog the first team squad all season!

Assuming we'll put out our first team next weekend I'm hoping we won't see the same result

Alan Solomons was the coach who drove Saints into relegation. I don't exactly hold him in high regard.

To be fair he is held in high esteem by Ulster fans though - his style obviously wasn't suited to Saints!

He is very good at giving clubs stability and making them hard to beat (our defence has been outstanding this season, other than today). What he very much is lacking so far at Edinburgh is adding a potent attack to our game, in which we are generally terrible.

I don't give a toss about this game as long as there were no injury to Toolis and Bresler.

Another PRO12 team putting out the spares and getting thrashed?

I do believe I just heard the unmistakable twang of an Edinburgh team being handed its backside. Shame.

That will probably be enough to convince Solomons never to rotate ever again.

Pot Hale wrote:Another PRO12 team putting out the spares and getting thrashed?

Yes, although the return leg should be a different story. Solomons had to rotate for one game at some stage and this was the right one to pick.

I wasn't at the game yesterday, but by all accounts I've read/heard, it was an excellent performance form us, not just result. I do think it needs to be borne in mind that this was a decidedly second string Edinburgh side, and a better barometer of where we are at may come on Friday night, when I would expect Edinburgh to recall a number of first choice players. If we can back up yesterday with another good performance and decent result, then I will be very happy.

Solomons wasn't overly pleased with the performance it is fair to say

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby-union/edinburgh/london-irish-38-6-edinburgh-visitors-ship-six-tries-1-3974283

Ozzy3213 wrote:I wasn't at the game yesterday, but by all accounts I've read/heard, it was an excellent performance form us, not just result.  I do think it needs to be borne in mind that this was a decidedly second string Edinburgh side, and a better barometer of where we are at may come on Friday night, when I would expect Edinburgh to recall a number of first choice players.  If we can back up yesterday with another good performance and decent result, then I will be very happy.

Hi Ozzy, yes it was much better. The passing behind the player, dropped balls and knock-ons we've seen previously were gone and some nice moves came off like the one for, I think, Lewi's first try. Fingers crossed they can keep it up.

Had a quick go on the LI forum, apparently the Edinburgh scrum went well. Someone mentioned there they shouldn't worry about the last few scums as it wasn't anymore Edinburgh 2nd choice front row, they should it was only Edinburgh 3rd choice props!

A shocking result for the Luvvies. are you just trying to lull Glasgow into a false sense of superiority?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Solomons wasn't overly pleased with the performance it is fair to say

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby-union/edinburgh/london-irish-38-6-edinburgh-visitors-ship-six-tries-1-3974283

That's a bit rich, Alan. Hey, just a wild stab in the dark but do you think that there's any correlation between the team suffering from a lack of experience and your categorical refusal to give any of them a game occasionally?

“We were very poor and our strength in depth was found wanting. Our defence was the worst I have seen this season and our inability to finish was poor,” said Solomons.

“The only positive was that we created four or five chances to score, but then we didn’t take any of them. The first two tries we conceded were down to kicks out of our system and generally we were found wanting in an extremely unimpressive performance.”

I bet Willem Nel cried when he saw that comment. He was just getting used to being able to feel his face again.

RDW_Scotland wrote:To be fair he is held in high esteem by Ulster fans though - his style obviously wasn't suited to Saints!

He is very good at giving clubs stability and making them hard to beat (our defence has been outstanding this season, other than today). What he very much is lacking so far at Edinburgh is adding a potent attack to our game, in which we are generally terrible.

Funny story back when Solomons coached Saints down into Division 1 (or Championship, whatever it is called now).  I was living back home and my old man was still fully employed by the Foreign Office at the time.  He used to threaten to use his connections to have Solomons sent to Saint Helena.  One night after another insipid loss, Dad is talking to Solomons, explaining all the failures of his regime (and the failures his parents apparently made by hooking up in the first place), and of course, threatening deportation.  The next morning, Dad receives - by personal messenger - a transfer to Iraq Station, Basrah for six months to do whatever stuff he always did.  Dad is livid.  I can't stop laughing.  But two days later, I get recalled again and sent to the same effing place (different posting).  So we both blame Solomons and how he coached Saints for our exile.