London Irish on the rampage

WHO SAID that Christmas was over? London Irish went back to the top of the Guinness Premiership — for 24 hours at least — thanks not only to the gifts presented to them by a Newcastle side heading ever deeper into a relegation grapple with Bristol, but also to an attacking display of genuine class, invention and flair that fully merited a seven-try tally and a bonus point despite the defensive frailties of their opponents.
In orchestrating the rout, Shane Geraghty, playing here at fly-half, indicated to the watching England attack coach Brian Smith that he could be the solution to England’s blunt midfield. Geraghty has pace, clever hands, quick feet and a good kicking game, all of which he used here to bamboozle the visitors, and afterwards Toby Booth, his coach, gave his former Exiles colleague a prod.
“That is the best Shane’s played for me this season. He brought to this game control and individual brilliance, which was good because Brian Smith was sitting right in front of me. Shane asked a lot of questions in attack, and as Brian is the attack coach, I’m sure he ticked a few boxes.”
He was not alone. Declan Danaher and Steffon Armitage reminded Martin Johnson that if he is looking for pace as well as physical presence from his flankers he could do a lot worse, while 20-year-old Alex Corbisiero confirmed his reputation as a young prop in a hurry. He not only held up well in his contest with Carl Hayman — Newcastle’s big-money All Black prop was making his first start since a knee injury — but also had enough drive left in his legs to smash over for try number five early in the second half.
The proceedings were rounded off when, amid a welter of replacements, Mike Catt made light of his 37 years to outpace Steve Jones after hacking the ball down the right wing and, although Tim Visser clawed a try back for Newcastle to make it 41-8, the Exiles player-coach had the last word when his switch pass sent Seilala Mapusua over, Geraghty converting for the winning margin.
This was all over apart from the groaning — and the groans were exclusively Newcastle’s — by half-time, with Irish blitzing them with four tries. The assault began ordinarily enough with a Peter Hewat penalty, and initially Irish seemed to be in such a hurry they gifted Newcastle three passes.
However, it was Newcastle scrum-half James Grindal who produced the biggest gift of all when he threw a suicidal long pass to John Rudd on the left touchline. Topsy Ojo read it from the moment it left his hands, picking off the pass 10m inside the Newcastle half and racing home for the first try of the match, Hewat converting for a 10-0 lead.
Newcastle did get on the scoreboard courtesy of a Rory Clegg penalty, but for the rest of the half it was one-way traffic with Geraghty calling the shots. He sprang Elvis Seveali’i through a gap close to a ruck, and when Hewat kept the pressure on with a chip into the Newcastle 22, Rudd conceded a 5m lineout. When the Exiles threw to the back, the ball fell for Armitage and the burly flanker trotted over for the softest of tries, Hewat’s conversion making it 17-3.
The Irish were clearly enjoying themselves, and the free rein granted to them by the Newcastle defence, and they went on to make it three tries in seven minutes.
The second came when Hewat dummied to kick from inside his own half but wrong-footed the chasers and cut straight up the middle before laying the ball off to James Hudson, and when the lock linked with Danaher he showed scorching pace from 35 metres. Irish were oozing confidence at 22-3 in front.
They came up with an even better score on the half-hour. It started with a strong run by the powerful Chris Hala’ufia, and after a Geraghty burst up the middle the ball was moved wide by Tonga Lea’aetoa to Seveali’i. The Samoan centre cut through before finding Hewat with a brilliant behind-the-back offload, stranding the defence and allowing the full-back to score under the posts.
Newcastle’s misery was made complete when, just before half-time, they opted to kick for the corner rather than for the posts, and Bob Casey stole their throw. However, this was no steal, it was Irish putting down their marker as genuine title contenders.
Star man: Shane Geraghty (London Irish)
Scorers: London Irish: Tries: Ojo 12, Armitage 22, Danaher 27, Hewat 30, Corbisiero 45, Catt 63, Mapasua 77 Cons: Hewat (4), Geraghty Pen: Hewat
Newcastle: Try: Visser 72 Pen: Clegg
Yellow card: Newcastle: Young (56min)
Referee: C Berdos (Fra)
Attendance: 10,978
LONDON IRISH: P Hewat (M Catt 53min); T Ojo, E Seveali’i (C Gower 60min), S Mapusua, T Homer; S Geraghty, P Hodgson (A Lalanne 60min); A Corbisiero (D Murphy 53min), D Paice (J Buckland 60min), T Lea’aetoa, J Hudson, B Casey (capt, K Roche 45min), D Danaher, C Hala’ufia, S Armitage (R Thorpe 53min)
NEWCASTLE: T May; T Visser, J Noon, T Tu’ipulotu, J Rudd (D Williams 64min); R Clegg (S Jones 60min), J Grindal (M Young 45min); M Ward (D Wilson 41min), M Thompson (R Vickers 41min), C Hayman (M Ward 76min), G Parling, M Sorenson, P Dowson (capt), A Balding (E Williamson 53min), B Wilson