Loader shines in front of Jones
Eddie Jones arrived at the Madejski Stadium scouting for young talent and left wondering what was going so wrong with one of the Premiership’s grand old clubs.
Leicester Tigers, who endured plenty of sleepless nights last season before securing their top-flight survival, appear to be facing another winter of strife and disharmony on the evidence of this lacklustre display.
Being outplayed, outfought and ultimately crushed by newly promoted Irish left Geordan Murphy, the director of rugby, more than a little perplexed and frustrated. His side are bottom of the table with just one win from four games.
Yes, the men from Welford Road have their England Test stars due to return soon, with Murphy needing to boost his team for the European Challenge Cup clashes with Pau and Cardiff Blues. And while Ben Youngs, George Ford, Jonny May, Manu Tuilagi and co will certainly give the team a major shot in the arm, they have to shrug off their post-world Cup blues and will again be missing when the Six Nations comes around.
Tigers are looking limp and tame on the field, and were given a lesson by Irish. Murphy admitted: “Irish were the better team. They wanted it more than us. They were more physical and their defence was excellent. We started badly and struggled to chase the game. We gave away silly penalties for back chat, which is not acceptable. Irish did a good job on us.”
While Murphy resembled a man with plenty of problems on his broad shoulders, London Irish head coach Les Kiss was at the other end of the emotional spectrum. It was a high-quality display from the Irish forwards and the backs played their part in taking the contest by the scruff of the neck.
Jones was attending his first Premiership match since returning from the heartbreaking World Cup defeat by South Africa. He would have enjoyed some of the young English talent on display, no more so than 21-year-old wing Ben Loader, who showed tremendous speed and strength to cross for the second try after prop Ollie Hoskins had grabbed the opener.
Loader, plus Irish loosehead Danny Hobbs-awoyemi, shone in
‘Ben is a great talent, but he does not need that pressure on him’
front of the watching national head coach. Kiss said: “Ben is a great talent and is maturing and learning all the time. He certainly doesn’t need that kind of pressure on him. I wouldn’t like to second-guess what Eddie is thinking either and expect he was looking at other players too.”
All Leicester could muster in the first half were two penalties from Tom Hardwick. Stephen Myler ran the show from No10.
The third try was one of the best so far this season. Lock Ruan Botha reached out to finish a fast and flowing move which began inside the Irish 22. There appeared to be a forward pass at the start of it, but referee JP Doyle allowed the try.
Leicester enjoyed a long spell of pressure early in the second half, but failed to make their domination of territory pay dividends.
Irish put the game to bed 16 minutes from the end when Myler’s high crossfield kick bounced perfectly for Waisake Naholo and the wing charged over for the bonuspoint try, which Myler converted.
Irish were reduced to 14 men for the final six minutes after replacement Matt Rogerson was shown a yellow card for foul play at a ruck, but it failed to stop them grabbing a fifth try courtesy of a Tom Parton breakaway effort. Leicester had the final say when full-back Jonah Holmes slid over in the corner.