London Irish are through to their second consecutive Premiership Rugby Cup Final, after their victory over Northampton Saints, in a hard-hitting contest in Brentford. The G-tech Community Stadium witnessed a stop-starting sparring match between the semi-finalists, with the momentum frequently halted under the fabled ‘Friday night lights’.
London Irish’s Rory Jennings and Northampton’s James Grayson battled it out from with penalties from the tee. The match was settled by Eddie Poolman’s try with two minutes left on the clock, as the replacement centre sent Irish through to the final.
London Irish Assistant Coach Declan Danaher was delighted with the result, but his full focus is on the unfinished business, in winning the Premiership Rugby Cup Final.
“Rory Jennings said it at the start of the competition, we’ve got unfinished business. The players and us have got unfinished business and I think that we’ve shown all the way through, that it’s (up to) the lads who pull the jersey on. Whether thats a couple of the lads who are playing for the (England) U20s tonight, or that’s the likes of Ben Loader and Luci (Cinti), there’s an expectation about where we want to get to.”
“What we’ve done is, we’ve not looked too far ahead. But, we’ve wanted to get to the final, and for a lot of lads that still hurts. Last year it was definitely a competition where we could have won, but we didn’t. So, now we get a second go at it, and we’re going to have to play well to beat either Exeter or Sale.”
Northampton Saints took no time in opening the scoring, as they took an away lead after just four minutes. Returning fly half Joe Grayson proved that he has fully overcome his foot injury, as he executed a point-perfect cross field kick, finding Ollie Sleightholme in the corner. The winger won the aerial battle over Michael Dykes for the opening try.
Grayson missed the opening kick from the corner, for a five point Saints lead. Irish returned fire, and hit back with aggression in defence. Northampton lock Brandon Nansen was lucky to not receive a yellow card for a relatively unprovoked slap to Josh Caulfield, as tempers flared in the semi final.
Atkins went to the boot for an up-and-under kick chase, and was gathered by Rory Hutchinson. His attempted clearence kick was charged down by Rory Jennings, with the ball spilling out for Shane Williams to gather. The centre then shipped the ball to winger Lucio Cinti, who danced his way through to the try-line. Jennings slotted the kick from wide.
An unfortunate injury for in-form Irish winger Michael Dykes saw him leave the field for a HIA, after just quarter of an hours play. The play levelled out into an arm-wrestling match, with both sides showing strength up-front. Irish eventually toppled Saints with a powerful scrum, with Lovejoy Chawatama forcing the penalty. Jennings slotted the following effort from the tee.
Momentum swung again as Saints scored their second first half try, with just two minutes to go before the break. A dominant rolling maul brought the ball in-field, and the Saints backs sharply moved to the blindside. Grayson neatly popped the ball up for Tom Litchfield to crash onto, and break the Irish defensive line to score. Grayson dusted off his shooting boots to add the extras.
Lucio Cinti thought he had scored the Exiles second try of the match, but play was called back from the referee in the final action of the first half. Jacob Atkins’ looping pass out wide found Cinti, who grounded in the corner despite being dragged into touch. The try was cancelled out for a supposed forward pass, and Jennings closed out the half with a penalty from in front of the posts.
Irish struck early in the second half, with a driving maul being grounded by flanker Josh Basham. Peeling away from the pack, Basham was supported over the line by number eight So’otala Fa’aso’o. Re-occurring penalties halted the flow of attack, with Grayson capitalising on. He kept Northampton within the match by the narrowest of margins, through back-to-back penalties.
Jennings then gave Irish more breathing space with a penalty after 71 minutes, before Eddie Poolman secured the win. An outstanding breakaway from Matt Cornish, saw the replacement prop sell the dummy and beat the last Saints defender in his way. Cornish was tracked down by the Saints defence, who then offloaded to Poolman to seal Irish’s place in the final.
3 MAIN TALKING POINTS
1 . Brentford’s bizarre penalty fest.
The fiery tempo of this fixture started from the off, it opened with an un-carded and relatively unprovoked slap from Brandon Nansen, to Player of the Match Josh Caulfield. Saints winger Courtnall Skosan became Brentford’s pantomime villian, after he seemed to bump Irish scrum half Caolan Englefield into the jumping path of Ben Loader, who toppled over and landed awkwardly.
This too went unpunished, and Loader’s confidence in the air was impacted, as he then dropped the following three attempts to catch the kicks. Lucio Cinti’s disallowed try was also an interesting talking point. The Irish winger believed that he had scored his sides’ second, yet the play was halted on the run-up to his grounding. Supposedly for a forward pass, yet it was not clear, and seemed more likly that an injured Ollie Sleightholme was too close to the play. The winger required a HIA, and unfortunately did not return to the field.
2. Lucio Cinti Shines after Re-Signing for the Exiles
Winger Lucio Cinti was one of the stand-outs in the London Irish side, as he beat defenders all throughout the game. Having recently re-signed his London Irish contract, Cinti put on an exciting performance for the home fans, who can expect to see more of the same in the future. Scoring the Exiles opening try, and grounding a second despite it being cancelled out, Cinti was a stand out player for Irish.
Danaher was delighted with Lucio Cinti’s performance, and spoke highly of him after the win.
“It’s amazing to see those guys go out there and pull that jersey on. Luci has gone from strength to strength, it’s brilliant he’s re-signed. I think that he’s got so much untapped talent, he’s got that massive left boot, he’s quick and he can get quicker the strength and conditioning coaches are telling me. He’s strong, he’s physical, he can play wing, he can play centre, he can play fullback. Yes, it’s a brilliant thing.”
3. James Grayson’s Boot is Back for Saints
Making his return to Northampton colours, after coming back from a foot injury, fly half James Grayson showed that he was back to his best today. After a brief fitness test as he ran out for Bedford Blues last weekend, Grayson was back wearing the Saints jersey, and had a try assist from the boot within the first five minutes.
Monstrous penalties from the tee, saw Grayson slot twice from efforts nearing the half-way line. He pinned Irish in their defensive half, and capitalised on the ever-rising penalty count. Grayson presented his versatility as a place kicker to touch, and a territory finder in the back-field against Irish. Saints fans can take Grayson’s return as a positive from the game.
LONDON IRISH: 30
TRIES: 3 (Cinti 12′, Basham 45′, Poolman 78′)
CONVERSIONS 3 (Jennings 12′, 45′, 78′)
PENALTIES 3 (Jennings 36′, 40′, 71′)
15. Loader 14. Cinti 13. Williams 12. Jennings 11. Dykes 10. Atkins 9. Englefield 1. Gigena 2. Ruiz 3. Chawatama 4. Caulfield 5. Munga 6. Cooke 7. Basham 8. Fas’aso’o
16. Cornish 17. Haffar 18. Parker 19. Scragg 20. Donnell 21. O’Sullivan 22. Poolman 23. Stokes
NORTHAMPTON SAINTS: 18
TRIES: 2 (Sleightholme 4′, Litchfield 38′)
CONVERSIONS: 1 (Grayson 38′)
PENALTIES: 2 (Grayson 49′, 62′)
15. Collins 14. Sleightholme 13. Hutchinson 12. Litchfield 11. Skosan 10. Grayson 9. Braley 1. Waller 2. Cruse 3. Petch 4. Nansen 5. Coles 6. Wilkins 7. Hinkley 8. Graham
16. Burns 17. Hobbs-Awoyemi 18. Painter 19. Lockett 20. Sylvester 21. James 22. Matavesi 23. Hendy