London Irish 7 - Saints 31

I had been beginning to worry that we were jinxing the away games, having not seen a win away yet this season.  But today corrected that and I feel that we can continue to go to away matches without worry.

This was a different team to the one that we saw two weeks ago against the Sarries.  They came out firing today and looking as though they wanted to be there.  And they looked like a team trying to work together rather than 15 individuals on a pitch.  This is a combination that is hard to beat, and possibly we need to thank the Sarries for shaking us up.  This was the best I have seen us play since the LV Cup Final.

There was some beautiful rugby played, and a couple of opportunities went missing.  Once again Flash tried kicking the ball, and it went dead.  I think we all may have to accept that Flash doesn't have the finese for kicking!

During the first half Lobbe received a blow to the head.  It was painful to watch him trying to get up, his legs were just jelly and he kept sinking down again.  But he wanted to play and nothing was going to stop him.  By the time the medics reached him he was standing, but wobbling everywhere.  We all thought he had to come off.  But he wouldn't let the medics take him off.  Thye even had a word with the ref but it became clear that if they tried to forcibly take him off then he was going to hit someone.  Thankfully after another five minutes or so he recovered.  A large part of me still feels he should have come off, but it shows the determination of the team as a whole. 

Another moment that typified the determined nature of the team was when Topsy Ojo intercepted from us and started a run down the right wing.  Topsy is a good winger and no slow coach.  And he had no-one in front of him.  This spelt disaster.  Then suddenly, and I really still can't understand this, Juandre Kruger was catching Ojo up.  Somehow Kruger was able to find power in his legs, after playing for 70 odd minutes, to catch and overhaul a wing.  That shouldn't happen.  In fact Ojo was so surprised, and possibly worried, by being caught that he almost stopped.  Kruger had too much momentum and couldn't stop, overshooting Ojo (it was a scene out of Top Gun) but this gave the others a chance to catch up.  Disaster averted.

A good win.  A well played win.  We dominated.  We passed, we off-loaded, we stole their line-outs, we pushed their scrum.

Special mention to Mike Catt though.  It was his last professional game.  He was brought on with 15 minutes or so to go.  And while you could laugh that he was given man of the match, I'd have to say he deserved it.  His distribution was outstanding, and the team looked different with him on, more threatening.  He is a class player.

Scorers
Saints - Tries: Clarke x2, Ashton.  Con: Myler x2.  Pens: Myler x 4
London Irish - Try: Coetzee.  Con: Homer