"UNSTOPPABLE" IRISH RELISHING GLOUCESTER CHALLENGE
London Irish, the Guinness Premiership’s table-toppers, are in confident mood and relishing the prospect of hosting second-placed Gloucester on Saturday at the Madejski Stadium – if only to prove to doubters that they belong top of the pile, and to prove to themselves that they can, this season, go on and add to their solitary title: the Powergen Cup in 2002.
After eight rounds Toby Booth, November’s coach of the month, and his London Irish team have accumulated 27 points and lead Gloucester on points difference alone – 63 to 54. And they have lost only twice – once at home to Bath, who are one point behind, and to Leicester Tigers 24-22 at Welford Road.
But it was September’s 20-16 defeat to Bath at the Madejski that really concerned backrower Richard Thorpe – as he thought it was unjust. Now, he believes, that their home ground is a “fortress” and that if his side swat aside Gloucester, “our momentum will go through the roof – I think we will be unstoppable”.
The 24-year-old continues: “We are treating this as one of the most important games London Irish have ever played and it would be a great early Christmas present if we were to win on Saturday.
“We rarely find ourselves at the top of the table – we were once, for one weekend, a few years ago. So now it all about cementing our place at the top and proving to the rest of the Guinness Premiership that yeah, we are worthy to be there and we are playing the best rugby in the league.
“We were very disappointed to lose that game at home against Bath but also quite surprised – we didn’t think we deserved to lose it. At the Madejski we think we are unstoppable – no one is going to break the fortress that we have built this season. It is definitely going to be an advantage to us playing at home against Gloucester.”
The former England age-group player and Whitgift School captain, alma mater also to Danny Cipriani and Oxford University’s varsity hat-trick hero Tim Catling, points to Booth’s foresight in tackling the Experimental Law Variations, claiming it is the key reason why Irish are taking the Premiership by storm.
Booth, who succeeded new England backs’ coach Brian Smith in the summer, spend much of the off-season studying how Southern Hemisphere teams, particularly in South Africa, had adapted to the new regulations.
“Then Toby brought back those ideas to our pre-season, it gave us a head start on the other teams and we have all adapted really well as a squad,” says Thorpe. “We are just thriving on it everyone in our team seems to have a good grasp on what the ELVs are all about.
“The structure that is servicing us well now was carried over from Brian last year. Toby has really grabbed the bull by the horns now and he is leading us forward with that. We have a good, young team who fully understand what we are trying to do.
“We are a couple of years in to this plan that Brian started and were unfortunate to lose him to England, but Toby is doing such a fantastic job.”
On Gloucester Thorpe adds: “Ryan Lamb is going to be a big focus – he is always very threatening in attack, and good with his interceptions. We will be targeting him and aiming our big carriers at him because he is a weak tackler.
“We will also have to watch out for the big, ol’ winger Lesley Vainikolo – we are very aware of what he can do. We will have to work hard to make sure we shut him down early.
“But we are not going to worry too much about them. It is more a question of whether Gloucester can stop us. We are going in to the game against Gloucester full of confidence and we have built up that momentum over the last couple of months.”
London Irish, the Guinness Premiership’s table-toppers, are in confident mood and relishing the prospect of hosting second-placed Gloucester on Saturday at the Madejski Stadium – if only to prove to doubters that they belong top of the pile, and to prove to themselves that they can, this season, go on and add to their solitary title: the Powergen Cup in 2002.
After eight rounds Toby Booth, November’s coach of the month, and his London Irish team have accumulated 27 points and lead Gloucester on points difference alone – 63 to 54. And they have lost only twice – once at home to Bath, who are one point behind, and to Leicester Tigers 24-22 at Welford Road.
But it was September’s 20-16 defeat to Bath at the Madejski that really concerned backrower Richard Thorpe – as he thought it was unjust. Now, he believes, that their home ground is a “fortress” and that if his side swat aside Gloucester, “our momentum will go through the roof – I think we will be unstoppable”.
The 24-year-old continues: “We are treating this as one of the most important games London Irish have ever played and it would be a great early Christmas present if we were to win on Saturday.
“We rarely find ourselves at the top of the table – we were once, for one weekend, a few years ago. So now it all about cementing our place at the top and proving to the rest of the Guinness Premiership that yeah, we are worthy to be there and we are playing the best rugby in the league.
“We were very disappointed to lose that game at home against Bath but also quite surprised – we didn’t think we deserved to lose it. At the Madejski we think we are unstoppable – no one is going to break the fortress that we have built this season. It is definitely going to be an advantage to us playing at home against Gloucester.”
The former England age-group player and Whitgift School captain, alma mater also to Danny Cipriani and Oxford University’s varsity hat-trick hero Tim Catling, points to Booth’s foresight in tackling the Experimental Law Variations, claiming it is the key reason why Irish are taking the Premiership by storm.
Booth, who succeeded new England backs’ coach Brian Smith in the summer, spend much of the off-season studying how Southern Hemisphere teams, particularly in South Africa, had adapted to the new regulations.
“Then Toby brought back those ideas to our pre-season, it gave us a head start on the other teams and we have all adapted really well as a squad,” says Thorpe. “We are just thriving on it everyone in our team seems to have a good grasp on what the ELVs are all about.
“The structure that is servicing us well now was carried over from Brian last year. Toby has really grabbed the bull by the horns now and he is leading us forward with that. We have a good, young team who fully understand what we are trying to do.
“We are a couple of years in to this plan that Brian started and were unfortunate to lose him to England, but Toby is doing such a fantastic job.”
On Gloucester Thorpe adds: “Ryan Lamb is going to be a big focus – he is always very threatening in attack, and good with his interceptions. We will be targeting him and aiming our big carriers at him because he is a weak tackler.
“We will also have to watch out for the big, ol’ winger Lesley Vainikolo – we are very aware of what he can do. We will have to work hard to make sure we shut him down early.
“But we are not going to worry too much about them. It is more a question of whether Gloucester can stop us. We are going in to the game against Gloucester full of confidence and we have built up that momentum over the last couple of months.”
Labels: Gloucester, Guinness Premiership, Lesley Vainikolo, London Irish, Richard Thorpe, Ryan Lamb
