Retiring London Irish hooker calls for reaction after Kennedy axe
RETIRING London Irish hooker David Paice has urged the club’s youngsters to pick up the baton and right the wrongs of a season in which he feels the players have let the club down.
Paice, who steps out at the Madejski Stadium for the final time against Saracens today, remains bitterly disappointed about the manner of rugby director Nick Kennedy’s departure in March, claiming the former England lock became a scapegoat for the team’s failings.
With academy products Joe Cokanasiga and Johnny Williams set to leave, the future of other budding stars like Theo Brophy Clews, Tom Parton, Tom Fowlie and Ben Loader is unclear. However, Paice believes they must remain to be in the vanguard of an Exiles revival. Paice told The Rugby
Paper: “There’s a good crop of academy guys at the club and if we’re in the Championship next season hopefully we can give them a big go, win that league again and be in a lot better position to fight in the Premiership again after that.
“They have to stay. Some players need to take responsibility for the reasons we’re going down. It’s been the players’ performances that haven’t been good enough and although there’ll be some turnover, it’s important the majority remain.”
Paice added: “It was a shame to see Nick go because I thought he was doing a decent job – and all the players here thought that as well, not just me. I think as players we let him down and he was probably the scapegoat for our performances.
“When Nick was here we started to see an upturn in results and lost a few close games against top sides we should have closed out, but we were caught a bit behind the eight-ball in the first half of the season and struggled with the step up from the Championship.
“We’ve shown we can compete at this level but it’s been too little too late and another relegation is very hard to take. But Declan Kidney and Les Kiss are good coaches, hopefully they can keep the right players and I believe the club is in good shape.”
One-club man Paice is calling time on his career after 15 years at Irish. While major silverware eluded him, he was part of the Exiles side that reached the Premiership final in 2009 and won eight England caps, playing a part in the 2012 victory over New Zealand.
He said: “The Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse at Twickenham in 2008 was pretty special as well and we came so close to getting the job done. I got my first England cap off the back of that and being part of beating the All Blacks will always be a great memory.”
With Irish set to finalise a move back to London – a deal with Brentford FC is close to being announced – the Darwin-born Paice, 34, will head home for a new life in Australia.
He added: “My wife’s from Brisbane as well and we have two children, so it’s a chance to get back closer to family. I wouldn’t mind coaching but I’ve got a degree in construction management so may look at that.”