Rampant Irish put Tigers to slaughter
LONDON Irish scored nine tries in a rout of Leicester Tigers to book home advantage in their first domestic cup final since their AngloWelsh Cup triumph 20 years ago.
Both sides made a raft of changes but Irish proved far too strong, to end Leicester’s hopes of a treble winning season. London Irish scrum half Ben White said: “It was a good performance from the team, the main aim was to put on a show, we worked hard on both sides of the ball.
“We were physical in defence, good in transition and took our chances in attack.”
Bryce Hegarty opened the scoring with a closerange penalty for Leicester before Henry Arundell scored the first try of the match. Quick hands by the Irish backline put Arundell in a promising position and the England U20s star chipped over the defence and gathered to score under the posts.
Mike Willemse charged down Dan Lancaster’s kick and Albert Tuisue went over for their second try.
The Exiles scored their third try before the half hour mark as a strong from Marcel van der Merwe got them within a metre of the line, with Noel Reid going over off the recycled phase.
Fijian powerhouse Tuisue then got his second close-range score before Irish produced a dominant counter ruck which stole possession and quick hands from the backline put Ben Donnell over for their fifth try on the stroke of half time.
Arundell secured his brace after half-time as he showcased his quick feet to run rings around Tigers’ defence before Tom CowanDickie put an excellent
kick in behind the defence which Phil Cokanasiga grubbered on for James Stokes to touch down.
Tuisue produced an audacious offload to Lucio Cinti who was too quick for the defence in racing down the touchline to score.
Eventually the visitors responded to the Irish onslaught as Hegarty broke through midfield to feed Sam Edwards who went over under the sticks.
Hosea Saumaki produced an incredible score as he somehow got the ball down in the corner despite attempts to drag him into touch by two Irish defendcarry
ers. But Irish had the last word as a loose pass by Simon Koroiyadi was punished as William Joseph picked up the loose ball and raced in from halfway.
Leicester assistant coach Brett Deacon said: “I think we’ve learned a lot throughout the competition, and it would be unfair to look at this game in isolation. We were the more inexperienced team, they had a Premiership forward pack and they overpowered us in collisions.
“We’ve stuck to what we set out to achieve – develop a young team and got to a semi-final.”