New-look Exiles give boss Kennedy headaches ahead of season opener
NICK Kennedy says he will have some tough choices to make after watching his London Irish run seven tries past Nottingham on Friday night.
Following their 28-12 victory over Harlequins last week, the Exiles were once again in impressive form at Hazelwood against their future Championship rivals, and Nottingham were never really in the game.
Tom Fowlie, Asaeli Tikoirotuma, Johnny Williams, Tommy Bell, Darren Allinson all crossed the line and Kennedy reckons he will need a lot of thought to decide on his starting XV when the season kicks off in earnest at Doncaster.
Kennedy said: “Tonight was a tough test for us, however we are happy to come away with a win.
“We’ve used these preseason games to give everyone a chance to show what they can do and there is certainly fierce competition for places in every position.
“It’s those headaches that you want as a coach and over the coming weeks we will spend a lot of time discussing and debating who will make the squad for the first game.”
The hosts made the best start with Fowlie crossing inside the first ten minutes and five minutes later they doubled their lead as Tikoirotuma went over to make it 10-0.
Nottingham hit back with a well-worked try of their own courtesy of Shane Buckley crashing through three defenders on his way to the line.
Lawrence Rayner made no mistake with the conversion and despite a tough start, which saw them lose two players to injuries, the score was only 10-7 in favour of Irish.
The opening half an hour gave England U20s World Champion Williams an opportunity to showcase all his potential as he set up a try before scoring one himself.
First he was on the end of some slick handling in the back line and his offload sent Bell over for the try. Soon after he didn’t need any help as he wiggled his way through the defence in midfield to score under the posts.
There was still time for one more try before the break and it came via replacement scrum-half Allinson from close range.
Greig Tonks kicked his third conversion of the half giving Irish a 31-7 lead at the break.
Irish picked up where they left off in the opening exchanges of the second half with a dominant rolling maul securing their sixth.
Despite trailing 36-7, Nottingham kept fighting and they had their reward just before the hour when Sam Yawayawa crashed over. Irish had the last word however another forward drive concluded the scoring with 15 minutes to go on the clock.