Pre-Season Friendly - London Irish vs Bracknell

By FreddieL
August 11 2002

London Irish Supporters were seriously divided last week. Some wanted to see the professional squad playing at Bracknell while others had their hearts set on a major drinking/social fest at Henley. Some just said BLX and went to both. FreddieL's excellent match report follows...

Jarrod returns to Irish!!

London Irish 76 Vs. 7 Bracknell

1. Worsley Worsley Hatley Wheatley
2. Drotske Drotske Kirke (T) Flavin
3. Hardwick Hardwick Durant Durant
4. Strudwick Strudwick Burke (T) Burke
5. Casey (T) Casey Fahrensohn Fahrensohn
6. Gustard Gustard (T) Cockle Cockle
7. Dawson Dawson Dawson Dawson
8. Sheasby Sheasby Strudwick Lake
9. Edwards Barrett Martens Brennan
10. Everitt (2C) Everitt (3C) Mapletoft (2C) Mapletoft (C)
11. Rossouw (T) Rossouw Barrett (2T) Barrett
12. Hoadley (T) Hoadley Appleford Cannon
13. Appleford Appleford (T) Burrows Burrows
14. Sackey Sackey (T) Bishop Bishop
15. Horak Horak (T) Thrower Thrower (T)
Score; 19-0 45-0 69-0 76-7

Today Jarrod Cunningham was at Sunbury to witness a rampant Irish side (or sides) see off Bracknell.
After all the nonsense and division of late we are finally all able to talk about what really matters- the rugby. Although the match was of little importance against a Bracknell side that offered precious little resistance Irish managed to display some good running rugby that looks promising for the coming season. Most importantly, however was to see how the summer signings fitted in Irish colours (or red training shirts as was the case today!). Pieter Rossouw looked, in my opinion every bit the class player that we have all seen and been told about. Despite his apparent lack of pace in comparison to Sackey and Bish, he managed to show some classy touches in setting up a couple of tries and scoring a well worked one himself in the first quarter.

Bob Casey, the other big name signing also had a storming start to his London Irish career and at 6foot 7” looked a dominating presence who towered above everyone in the lineout and reached the breakdowns incredibly quickly for a man of his size. He showed some pace in his try where he raced home from thirty metres beating all of the covering Bracknell backs to the line. A second row partnership of Strudwick and Casey looks certain and that should be enough to strike fear into the hearts of any opposition. Saying that, however Jeff Fahrensohn showed today that he wont be giving up his first team place without a fight with an excellent game. Sorry for concentrating so much on the second row but lock is a position close to my heart!

Elsewhere, Mark Mapletoft looked like a classy and very able replacement for Barry should he (God forbid) get injured this season and Kieron Dawson looked back to his very best after his lengthy layoff through injury. Our England boys Horak and Appleford also looked to have gained valuable experience from the tour to Argentina with Appleford cutting through the Bracknell defence to score the pick of the tries. We seem to have a wealth of talent on the wing with Bish putting in some crunching tackles on his return from his honeymoon and Kevin Barrett showing his versatility by running in two tries from the right wing. The Doc has a wonderful selection problem on the wing with Sackey skipping through the tackles to score and playing well as usual. Talking of the Doc, there was no sign of the great man on the pitch today. This, according to Barry is due to long standing hamstring problems that troubled him much last season and will almost certainly mean that we don’t see so much of him at the beginning of this. We seem to have numerous able centre replacements in Hoadley, Cannon and the rejuvenated Burrows.

In the front row the Worsley-Drotske-Hardwick combination looks first choice however I was pleasantly surprised by our new signing Durant. After hearing less than favourable reports from Saracens he looked mobile, powerful and keen and a good front row change. In the back row Gustard and Sheasby looked their usual selves with Strudwick fitting in nicely at number 8 in the third quarter.

On a personal note, it was good to see my old schoolmate Ed Thrower back and opening his mouth as much as usual as well as scoring a good try and it is good to see that Paddy Winters has been picked up by the Irish academy having threatened to go to Quins! Watch him play at eight for Irish in the next couple of years.

All in all this was a squad training session with huge commitment and shows the level of competition in every position. It was great to be back and shouting for Irish again after a summer of World Cup and Cricket!