Booth bemoans suicidal start

Published 8 Mar 2010 09:00 0 Comments

LONDON Irish head coach Toby Booth did his best to look to the positives after his side were hammered 35-19 by reigning Guinness Premiership champions Leicester on Saturday.

Having finally recorded their first win of the year against Quins in their previous match, the Exiles wasted the chance to build on that moment after a shocking opening half hour.

The Tigers ran in three tries in the first 26 minutes to lead by 23 points and effectively end the game as a contest.

And while Booth was disappointed with his side's early capitulation, he was happy with their response thereafter.

He said: "We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and we probably gambled a bit in our 22 for their fourth try which we probably didn't need to do.

"That was the killer blow in relation to losing bonus points but we have a couple of weeks off now and I said at half-time, amongst other things, we needed positives to take away with us because when we pick the reins up in seven days we need to have things to build on for the final furlong.

"And I think we saw that in the second half, there was something to build on, on what was a very difficult afternoon."

The Exiles started on the back foot and powerful Samoan winger Alessana Tuilagi took just five minutes to give Leicester the lead after good work by Martin Castrogiovanni and Anthony Allen.

Toby Flood converted and then added a penalty, before Tom Homer got Irish on the board 16 minutes in with a successful penalty to reduce the deficit to 10-3.

Another three points from the boot of Flood got Leicester going soon after before Aussie back Lote Tuqiri and Kiwi winger Scott Hamilton combined to send the latter over for Tigers' second try on 23 minutes.

And just three minutes later the home fans at Welford Road were off their seats again when a rare mistake by Seilala Mapusua allowed Castrogiovanni a clear run to the line for the home side's third try.

Flood's conversion opened up a 25-3 lead for the reigning champions before Steffon Armitage gave the Exiles a glimmer of hope on the stroke of half-time.

The England flanker crashed over from close range to record his third try in as many games and Homer's conversion narrowed the gap to 15 points.

A Ryan Lamb penalty moved the Exiles back to within two scores 10 minutes into the second half. And after former Exile Jeremy Staunton responded with a successful kick of his own, Lamb added two more penalties to make the score 28-19.

Any hopes of a late Irish comeback were put to bed 10 minutes from time, though, when former England hooker George Chuter barged over for a converted score.

* The Exiles have no game for the next two weekends before hosting Sale Sharks in the annual St Patrick's Day game at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday, March 28.

For ticket news visit www.london-irish.com

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