Red card leaves Kennedy frustrated

Gloucester 39 London Irish 15

“WE REALLY let ourselves down.”

That was the reaction of London Irish director of rugby Nick Kennedy after seeing his side reduced to 14 men with captain David Paice shown a red card on the stroke of half-time for an off the ball tackle in defeat to Gloucester.

Petrus du Plessis and Teofilo Paulo both crossed the whitewash for the Exiles, but the hosts ran in five tries of their own, three coming when Irish were a man down, to cruise to a 39-15 win.

Kennedy had no complaints about the decision to send off his skipper after he charged into the head of Gloucester captain Willi Heinz.

“It was a definite red card,” admitted Kennedy.

“I watched it once back on the replay and the referee got it spot on.

“We pride ourselves on our discipline and we let ourselves down going down to 14 men.

“We were very much in the game at the time, a few elements were going really well for us and if we’d have gone on with 15 men, we would’ve had tactical plans for the second half.”

He added: “All plans go out of the window when you’ve got 14 men.

“You need to change systems, structures and then ask the boys to put in an incredible bit of effort to make up that man disadvantage.”

Irish started well, only denied an opening try by a Tom Fowlie knock on, and they were made to pay when Lewis Ludlow burst through to score under the posts on 12 minutes.

The deficit was reduced courtesy of a Tommy Bell penalty before successive kicks from Billy Twelvetrees put the Cherry and Whites 13-3 ahead.

But back came the Exiles, scoring their first try of the day when du Plessis went over following a powerful rolling maul.

The hosts never looked back after the red card, with Burns, Jake Polledri and Henry Purdy scoring to cancel out Paulo’s effort and leave Irish empty-handed and six points from safety.

“We will plan for Edinburgh this week but let’s be honest, it’s all about the Worcester game in two weeks,” said Kennedy ahead of the crunch clash on December 22 after two rounds of European action. LONDON IRISH: Marshall, Cokanasiga (Woolstencroft 40), Mulchrone, McLean (Fowlie 2), Lewington, Bell, Steele (Meehan 56), Elrington (Reid 50), Paice (c), du Plessis (Hoskins 50), van der Merwe, Paulo, Coman, Northcote-Green, Cowan.

Tries: du Plessis (28), Paulo (55)

Con: Bell (56), Pen: Bell (13)

Red card: Paice (40+1)

GLOUCESTER: Hudson, Purdy, Symons, Twelvetrees (Atkinson 69), Thorley

(Scott 56), Burns, Heinz (c) (Vellacott 40), Hohneck (McAllister 62), Hanson (Hibbard 59), Afoa, Savage (Clarke 69), Thrush, Polledri, Ludlow, Ackermann (Safe 70). Tries: Ludlow (10), Burns x2 (36,41), Polledri (52), Purdy (67)

Cons: Twelvetrees x4 (11,37,42,53)

Pens: Twelvetrees x2 (17,22)

Referee: Ian Tempest Attendance: 12,351