Tommy Bell stars as London Irish stretch unbeaten run
Rotherham .......... 10pts INSPIRED by an outstanding individual performance from fullback Tommy Bell, London Irish forcefully maintained their promotion challenge as the table-toppers won their 11th consecutive league game. London Irish ...... 38pts
Bell, the Championship’s top points’ scorer with 137, added 23 here and showed a competitive Rotherham side how opportunities should be taken by breaking through to touch down twice on 17 and 46 minutes.
The Exiles dangerman also excelled with his goal kicking, putting over five conversions and a penalty against Rotherham, who played with vigour and commitment throughout and were not overwhelmed by a team containing an international front row including prop Ben Franks, who’s twice won the World Cup with New Zealand in 2011 and 2015.
A win by five tries to one delighted coach Nick Kennedy, particularly the effort in the second half as they ended Rotherham’s partial recovery that put the Titans behind by only 17-10 at the interval.
Kennedy said: “It was close at half time. We expected a tough match and got one. But all credit to our lads who came out and then executed exactly what they said they would do.
“Our bench had a real impact and some of our defence in the second half was brilliant, but we need to keep on improving because this is a hard league and other sides are improving as well.”
Rotherham’s hopes of causing a huge upset were dented early on after they lost control of the ball at three attacking lineouts close to the Irish line. Turning the ball over on several occasions also lost them initiative.
However, after a weak start in which Irish scored 17 points in as many minutes, Rotherham’s forwards hit back to set up a fine try for hooker Joe Graham, who sprinted over from a lineout with fly-half Caolan Ryan converting.
This Titans fightback gathered momentum just before the break when Ryan added a penalty to cut the Irish advantage to only 1710.
But this improvement couldn’t be built on.
Irish’s superior class, speed and the strength of their pack created three second half tries, one more for Bell, another for winger Joe Cokanasiga and replacement scrum-half Scott Steele, who followed up a kick towards the posts by Canadian international three-quarter Ciaran Hearn. Bell’s fifth conversion stretched the lead to 38-10 on 70 minutes.
Game over, but Rotherham’s enthusiasm
continued and coach Justin Burnell was pleased his team never gave up against the club with superior resources on and off the field.
He said: “Our front row were very impressive and they played their guts out. We were in the fight and just before half time we could have gone in 17-all, but we lost the ball over the line.
“It could have gone horribly wrong but it didn’t. We can take good points from this game, but if you turn the ball over against better opposition, they make gains.”