WHILE PLENTY OF Irish talent stood out at home for the provinces during the weekend’s Pro12 action, there were lots of exiles playing in the English leagues too.
Here’s how our players got on in the Premiership and Championship.
Aviva Premiership
London Irish earned their fifth victory of the league season with a dramatic 23-20 success away to rivals Wasps. Ian Humphreys started at out-half, scoring a try before being replaced in the 55th minute.
Remarkably, London Irish played over 30 minutes of the game with only 14 men after scrum-half Tomás O’Leary was red carded for excessive use of the foot on James Haskell in the 48th minute.
Centre Eamonn Sheridan, wearing 13, played the full 80 minutes once again for Brian Smith’s side. The ex-Leinster man still hasn’t missed a single minute of London Irish’s Premiership campaign, starting and finishing all 14 of their games so far.
Jamie Hagan enjoyed just his second league start of the season, completing 75 minutes before being subbed off. The Ireland international tighthead prop will hope to hang on to the number three shirt for next weekend’s visit of Leicester to London.
The Exiles move up to ninth in the league after this win.
Former Ulster prop John Andress lined out for Worcester as they were beaten 30-14 by Northampton yesterday. The tighthead completed 64 minutes before being replaced, but the Warriors paid the price for their indiscipline as they received two yellow cards and one red to stunt their challenge.
Worcester remain rooted to the bottom of the Premiership, still without a win this season.
Peter Stringer played 25 minutes off the bench in Bath’s excellent 27-23 success away to the Exeter Chiefs. The ex-Munster scrum-half was brought on with Mike Ford’s team holding a 17-16 lead and guided them to the victory with typical composure.
On the home team was Ulsterman Gareth Steenson, whose two conversions and three penalties were instrumental in keeping the Chiefs in the game. The 29-year-old has accumulated 147 points in the league this season, behind only Bath’s George Ford and Stephen Myler of Northampton.
Ian Whitten, also formerly of Ulster, was one of the two Chiefs try-scorers at Sandy Park, bursting through the Bath defence to dot down and completing the full 80 minutes in the 13 shirt.
Greene King IPA Championship
Rotherham Titans maintained their position at the summit of England’s second tier with a 15-12 win over London Scottish at home. Munster academy product Sean Scanlon started his 13th game of the season at fullback, with the 25-year-old continuing to impress for the league leaders.
Former Leinster wing Michael Keating came off the bench for the Titans, the first time he has not started a league fixture during this campaign. The pacy wing, who joined from Doncaster last summer, has scored six tries this season.
Ali Birch, who came through at Ulster, also appeared off the bench in the closing minutes for Rotherham. The 25-year-old back row has started 11 times in the Championship since joining last summer, crossing the whitewash thrice in that time.
On the losing side, 18-times capped Ireland international Neil Best played the full game at blindside flanker. The 34-year-old has started 13 games in total this season as London Scottish continue to push for promotion.
The capital-based club are fifth in the Championship.
Irish-qualified Matthew Jarvis scored nine points as Nottingham suffered an agonising 25-24 defeat at home to Bristol this afternoon. The ex-Connacht out-half had given the home team a 24-22 lead in the 79th minute, but Bristol’s Nicky Robinson slotted a last-gasp penalty to deny them.
Former Ireland U20 international Neilus Keogh was an unused substitute as Nottingham moved up to ninth thanks to their losing bonus point.
Time for player power here… Surely it’s not the Galway players fault they got relegated…. Manager out……. God bless karma
Hahahah.I’m delighted after they stabbed a good man in the back
Fair play to Cork big big win for them away from home .
Anthony cunningham will be laughing and would have every right to be !
Bonkers system!!! Cork don’t win a game all league but one game allows them stay in the top division!!!!
It’s not fair Julian. It’s not cricket
Serves the Galway players for what they did to Anthony Cunningham, but not for there supporters. Corcaigh Abu
Galway hae great support but they should be letting the players know that this isn’t on , to get a good hurling man like cunningham sacked was a disgrace
That’ll quieten Patrick Horgan’s critics for a while at least.
Ha ha hon the rebels
Id love to see kerry get them in tralee next year
Kerry will get a crack at Galway in June if they keep it up. And I wouldn’t put my house on Galway
Shameful how cork can stay up 0 wins and 0 points cause today was a playoff game. Galway 2 draws and 1 win and 4 points and they go down. Headquarters really need to have a look at this for all the divisions
Shussh…Seanie! The “relegation system” is designed as a safety net for the bigger counties. But dont tell anyone
Seanie, if Galway can’t beat a team who didn’t win a league game all this season ( Cork) and in Pearse Stadium, it’s not as if Galway did not know the rules of the league ( bottom two in relegation final) , and again “fail” in a “final” then maybe Division 2 hurling ( called 1b ) is a correct level for them to be playing at presently . The players have no excuses. The senior players not scoring enough from open play and not scoring goals !!
Cunningham can’t be blamed for this one.
When is the last time that a Division 2 ( 1b) team won the Liam McCarthy?
Come on Galway bounce back from another setback !!
Clare not win it from 1B? Agree with all your points though. Love the league now. Every week is a big game.
Good win delighted for the lads will do there confidence a world of good rebles abu
Those nasty Cork chappies will surely offer to relegate themselves in place of those valiant Galway boys. Change the rules I say
Bad day for galway hurling
Corks first goal came from a very dubious free out that Galway could have had as a free in…4 point swing, but overall goals win games
The free count was heavily against Cork so sorry you cant use that as an excuse …
If the league was ran off again tomorrow some other two teams in Div one might end up in the bottom two as there is very little between Galway Tipp Cork Dublin waterford and now even Killkenny have come “back” closer to this group.It is hard luck on Galway to be relagated but does it really matter? Clare and limerick are in the league semi final and both will have a big say in this years championship.
Come back Anthony. Clearly you were not the problem. A diet of humble pie for the team might do them good as they wait months for their next match of any consequence.
Dubious Frees? Corks John cronin got spear tackled by a galway player at the end, and the ref gave a free to galway? Overall the free count was by far in Galways favour. Without the 11 from Frees from Jo Canning, the margin would have been alot more convincing.
Yes the ref had Maroon colored glasses on and did his best to keep Galway in it Im surprised he did not disallow one of the goals for something innocuous ..
Totally false when a team with no points stays up.a new system where bottom team should be automatically relegated is the way to go cuts out a needless match.
Believe