Fired up London Irish show their true worth

SEVEN thousand people arrived at Sunbury to see the axe fall. The London Irish ground, festooned with bunting, flags and barbecues and pumping out ballads over the public address system, was no place for the fainthearted in the Courage League.

Coventry had come in the hope of repeating their midweek performance of a two point win but were met with the most ferocious and committed London Irish side that has taken to the field all season.

The club's future was in the balance. Defeat or even a draw meant the obscurity of Division Two for a side boasting nine international players in their starting lineup. The prospect of falling from Division One was too much to contemplate.

Willie Anderson could well afford to smile. "I think this was our Cup final. We rose to the occasion. We set out goals at the beginning of the year and to the players' credit they've managed to change."

If Anderson's pack performed every week with the sustained passion they produced yesterday there would have been little need for all of this. Since he took over in midseason he has always said his team are too good to go down and yesterday they proved him right.

Gary Halpin, as well as being an inspirational captain, grabbed himself a try. Gabriel Fulcher did not miss one catch in the line outs and in the loose his tackling set the tone for a controlled and perfectly pitched performance.

Conor O'Shea's kicking from fullback was flawless and his timing coming into the line for the crash ball added another dimension to the London Irish game. Added to David Humphreys' marksmanship and opportunistic hustling at outhalf, London Irish were all together too much for this Coventry side, one that was last in Division One back in the 1980s.

With a fierce wind blowing in the first half, London Irish had the advantage of taking an early lead. That opportunity inevitably fell to Humphreys after only six minutes. It was also the beginning of a platform that Humphreys was to build from his boot as Coventry, under tremendous pressure from the exiles' pack, gave penalties away at regular intervals in their desperation to stem the Irish surge.

Three minutes later the outhalf stretched the margin to 6-0 as Ken O'Connell, Fulcher, Jeremy Davidson and Halpin worked tirelessly at the coalface.

On 21 minutes it was O'Shea who made his timely run into the line, gathered and made good ground before the Coventry cover dragged him down. But when he turned, it was Halpin coming in at speed. Trying to stop the Irish prop from five yards out was close to the impossible.

Humphreys converted for a 13-0 lead before adding another penalty in the 33rd minute using the wind brilliantly to pull the ball back, having kicked hard to the right of the posts.

Five minutes later, O'Shea was again in the thick of it, this time taking the ball from the halfway line and covering 35 metres before being felled. His poise on the tackle allowed the ball out to right winger Niall Woods and again the home side were over the Coventry line.

O'Shea's obvious satisfaction and intense celebration gave an illustration of the London Irish frame of mind. But with Humphreys converting for a 23-0 halftime lead, there was still no slowing down of the Irish tempo.

Coventry were by then under enormous pressure as their aspirations to Division One status began to disappear before them. The relentless volleys of hard hits from the Irish forwards and the superb rucking gave their opponents little room to breathe. When Jez Harris, the Coventry outhalf, looped the ball over his shoulder five yards from his line and saw Humphreys intercept and canter over for a gift try, the life visibly fizzled out of Coventry.

Although they had the wind advantage and in Harris a fine place kicker, Coventry at that stage had to chase tries. But with less than 40 minutes on the clock and trailing 28-0 their task was mountainous.

London Irish did concede ground in the final quarter but to no dangerous extent. Scrum half Niall Hogan kept the tempo going and kept the ball tight as the exiles held their possession rather than kick into the strong wind.

The Coventry try from Richie Robinson came far too late to spark any sort of resurgence and served merely to take the bare look off the scoreline.

So London Irish survive and now look to the summer to try and strengthen their squad with a view to competing in Division One rather than struggling around the relegation zone.

"For London Irish its quite significant in terms of plans for the next three years," said chief executive Duncan Leopold. "We want to become a major club in the first division. All credit to the players and Willie Anderson today because that is now possible."