Cup clash was ‘great experience for youngsters’

NICK KENNEDY says the cup trip to Gloucester was “great experience” for his younger players.

The Exiles named an inexperienced side at Kingsholm with the likes of academy products Ben Loader ( pictured), Rory Brand, Jack Cooke and Josh Basham among the 10 changes from the previous week.

And it showed on the pitch as Gloucester, a side packed with international stars, overran the visitors to score seven tries and win 47-7 with Ollie Hoskins the only man to cross the whitewash for Irish.

“It was great experience for some of my youngsters,” Kennedy told The Wokingham Paper.

“I brought a 17-year-old off the bench, had a couple of 18-year-olds at lock and six, Rory Brand at nine playing against Ed Slater, Jeremy Thrush and John Afoa in front of a packed Gloucester shed.

“It’s an experience those boys will remember.

“We’re disappointed with the result and they won’t remember the score-line, but they will remember playing in front of such a big crowd and playing against such quality opposition and they’ll be a lot better for the experience.”

Attention now switches to the league again with Bath coming to Madejski Stadium on Sunday.

The two sides locked horns only two weeks ago with the Exiles edged out 26-22 in the Anglo-Welsh Cup. And Kennedy knows it is going to be a huge ask to stop a team who have won six of their last seven matches.

“Bath are a quality squad,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of players to come back into that team that beat us at home, so we are going to have to play some very good rugby to beat them.

“But we’re really looking forward to it.

“It’s not often you can lose a game and then two weeks later you get a chance to put it right.

“We’ve been working very hard to improve areas we know we need to improve and hopefully we see some evidence of that on Sunday.”

LONDON IRISH: Tonks, Ransom, Mulchrone (c) (M. Williams 50), McLean, Loader, Brophy Clews (Atkins 73), Brand, Smallbone (Elrington 50), Woolstencroft, Hoskins (Chawatama 58), Lloyd, Cooke, Basham, Northcote-Green (Donnell 73), Schatz.

Try: Hoskins (46)

Con: Tonks (47)

GLOUCESTER: Hudson, Purdy (Symons 44), Trinder, Twelvetrees, Thorley, Burns (Evans 48), Heinz (c) (Braley 62), Rapava Ruskin (Denman 58), Hibbard (Hanson 58), Afoa (Hohneck 58), Slater (Savage 58), Thrush, Polledri, Rowan, Ludlow (Safe 72).

Tries: Heinz (23), Rapava Ruskin (27), Hudson (40), Thrush (58), Trinder (60), Braley (72), Polledri (75)

Cons: Burns x2 (24,41), Twelvetrees x4 (59,61,73,76)

Referee: Jack Makepeace

Attendance: 11,272