London Irish for Europe?

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » February 27th, 2006, 11:29 am

London Irish 30-3 Northampton

London Irish (17) 30
Tries: Armitage, Paice, Tagicakibau, Ojo
Cons: Flutey 2
Pens: Flutey
Drop goals: Catt
Northampton (3) 3
Pens: Spencer
London Irish moved into fourth place in the Guinness Premiership with a comprehensive win over Northampton.
The Exiles ran in two tries from Delon Armitage and David Paice as they claimed a 17-3 lead at the break.

Samoan flyer Sailosi Tagicakibau and Topsy Ojo added further tries in the second half and Mike Catt added a drop goal for the Irish.

Riki Flutey converted two tries and added a penalty, while Northampton only managed a Carlos Spencer penalty.

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London Irish rugby director Brian Smith:
"That's two good teams we've played in successive weeks, and back-to-back bonus points is great. I'm very pleased with how we played.

"Bath were the in-form team when we played them and Northampton were coming off a high after demolishing Saracens.

"If we play the way we know we can we are going to be a threat."

Northampton director of rugby Paul Grayson:
"Jon Clarke dropping the ball at the end when a try was on summed it up.

"If that try had mattered I would have been worried about the decision but it didn't affect the outcome of the game.

"There was no lack of effort from the boys. They came off exhausted. We looked tired in the last 20 minutes."

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London Irish: Horak; Armitage, Mordt, Catt, Tagicakibau; Flutey, Hodgson; Hatley, Paice, Rautembach; Casey, Kennedy; Roche, Dawson, Leguizamon.
Replacements: Collins, Flavin, Gustard, Murphy, Ojo, Willis, Pedro Tiesi.

Northampton: Kydd; Rudd, Clarke, Quinlan, Vilk; Spencer, Robinson; Smith, Richmond, Budgen; Damien Browne, Lord; Tupai, Harding, Daniel Browne.
Replacements: Hartley, Emms, Gerard, Fox, Noon, Howard, Pritchard.

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » February 27th, 2006, 11:31 am

Irish up to 4th - Brian Smith has turned around a pedestrian and poor team, that were relegation favourites and created an exciting, dynamic side challenging for Europe.

Possible future coach of Ireland?

epaddy · Post by **epaddy** » February 27th, 2006, 11:39 am

LI are pretty much the Newcastle of English rugby, a huge club waiting to explode.

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » February 27th, 2006, 11:45 am

epaddy wrote:LI are pretty much the Newcastle of English rugby, a huge club waiting to explode.

Yep. was a member there when I was in London a few years back. They used to play in front of 2000 people standing on a pile of mud. Now they can pull in 20.000 for a St. Patricks day game. Amazing success story, and great to see the club delivering good rugby at last!