Don't Believe the Hype

By Mark H
April 21 2006

So when did a European Challenge Cup semi-final become the equivalent of a Derrin Brown/Paul McKenna/Uri Gellar “psychological” evening? There’s been so much horse-twaddle spoken this week about Sunday’s game that I’ve given up reading it.

(And before the pedants come on, I’m writing this because we need a match preview)

 

Let’s look at the evidence.  Irish coach Brian Smith reckons that Falcons are favourites with home advantage and a quality back line.  Colin Charvis and Matthew Burke give Irish the slight edge on the basis of their form in the Premiership.  The massed ranks of Irish supporters can’t decide whether they’re underdogs, under-estimated, or the greatest team ever that are not so much already in the final but down at Homebase looking for a new shelf for their trophy cabinet.

 

For the latter group, calm down – the last time I saw a team or set of supporters that confident was four years ago, and as I remember, Irish stuck 38 points on them at Twickenham.  For those who consider Irish to be under-estimated, maybe at the start of the season yes, but not any more – the sheer quality of rugby that’s being played is enough to disprove that little piece of misinformation.  For those that consider Irish underdogs, well, all I can say is look up the definition of the word and then come back to me.

 

Brian Smith’s London Irish of 2005/06 is not Gary Gold’s London Irish of 2004/05.  This version can score tries, create space, and look to go for the brave, exciting options rather than “hang on, we can drop a goal from here”.  This is an Irish side who have won six of their last seven matches, the only loss being to Sale after giving them an almighty fright.  This is an Irish side with the best away record in the Premiership.  This is an Irish side who are scoring tries from anywhere.  This is an Irish side who for 24 hours last weekend, lay second in the Premiership with just two rounds of matches to go.

 

Underdogs?  I refer everyone to the word “horse-twaddle”.  Irish are favourites based on form, flair, and league position.  And rightly so, they've earned it.

 

Home advantage?  It’s only an advantage if you take advantage of it.  And generally this season, Falcons haven’t.  Bristol, Bath, London Irish, Gloucester, Northampton.  Teams who’ve won at Kingston Park this season.  The psychological tricks have come out in force, but unless you have some hard evidence to back them up with, then it just looks very, very sad.

 

Rant over, now to the preview.  Someone said that it shouldn’t be Mike Catt that Falcons are worried about, but Gonzalo Tiesi.  Dead right.  It’s impossible to write Catt off, but with Riki Flutey inside him and Tiesi outside, then the old man of the Irish team is having a comfortable trip at the moment – mainly due to Tiesi’s ability to spring up in any of the back positions and have the wonderful ability to glide through defences, rather than crash.  With a back three of Armitage, Ojo and Tagicakibau (pronounced Ta-gee tha-key bow, but you’ll soon give up on that and refer to him as that quick bloke on the wing) all having pace to burn, Irish have options.

 

Add to that the lineout presence of Bob Casey, and the game-slowing ability of Olivier Magne, combined with a bench including the lineout presence of Nick Kennedy and the game-slowing ability of Kieron Dawson, and it could be a long lunch.  Dawson leaves Irish at the end of the season to go back to his Ulster roots and pull on his province’s shirt.  He’ll want to leave with a trophy.  The Irish team (or the announced 22 at least) is:-

 

15. Delon Armitage

14.Topsy Ojo

13. Gonzalo Tiesi

12. Mike Catt (captain)

11. Sailosi Tagicakibau

10. Riki Flutey

9. Paul Hodgson

1. Neal Hatley

2. Robbie Russell

3. Faan Rautenbach

4. Bob Casey

5. Kieran Roche

6. Declan Danaher

7. Olivier Magne

8. Phil Murphy

 

16. Michael Collins

17. David Paice

18. Richard Skuse

19. Nick Kennedy

20. Kieron Dawson

21. Darren Edwards

22. Shane Geraghty

 

Falcons, like Irish, got to this stage with seven wins in the competition.  Whilst Irish got past Pau, Overmach Parma and Agen (where they won 32-24 despite being nine points down with a minute of normal time to go) in the pool, and Bayonne in the quarter-final, Falcons edged them out of the second seeding by disposing of Brive, Borders, L’Aquila and Connacht.  The architect of that Connacht victory, Toby Flood, drops to the bench this time as Dave Walder comes in to play against the team he always seems to like playing.

 

Elsewhere, Jamie Noon replaces the injured Mark Mayerhofler, Andy Perry comes in for Luke Gross, and Ben Woods nudges Cory Harris to the bench.  This is, of course, all subject to Saturday’s fitness tests, so don’t be surprised if there are one or two face changes on Sunday.  The team:-

15 Matthew Burke
14 Tom May
13 Mathew Tait
12 Jamie Noon
11 Anthony Elliott
10 Dave Walder
9 James Grindal

1 Micky Ward
2 Andy Long
3 Robbie Morris
4 Andy Perry
5 Geoff Parling
6 Mike McCarthy
7 Ben Woods
8 Colin Charvis (captain)

Jonny Williams
Matt Thompson
Owen Finegan
Cory Harris
Toby Flood
Hall Charlton
Jonny Wilkinson

Referee for Sunday’s match is the Welsh-speaking part-time straight man for Jonathan Davies, Nigel Owens, who ran touch in the England-Ireland game recently, and is one of those seemingly never-ending line of Welsh referees who put their authority on the game early on, and allow the game to flourish as a result – as opposed to some of the muppets in the Premiership.

 

Both sides are in their third ECC semi-final.  Irish lost to Castres 40-30 in 1999/2000, before falling to Pontypridd 33-27 two seasons later.  Falcons lost to Agen 12-9 in 1997/98, before being downed 17-12 to eventual winners Harlequins in 2000/01.  One team will make their first European final.  Whilst a loss for Irish would leave them to concentrate on securing their top four place and then having the chance to bug Sale, Leicester and Wasps, a loss for Falcons would end the season two weeks early, and make the six-hour train journey home on Sunday night a very long one.

 

We, as supporters, were promised a trophy this season.  A win on Sunday would not win the cup, but to win a final, you have to be in it.  Time to silence the doubters and deliver.