London Irish not exiled yet
Sportsdesk • Published 22 Dec 2011 13:00
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By James Walker-Roberts
LONDON Irish head coach Toby Booth refused to rule out qualification to the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup despite watching his side lose 25-19 to Racing Metro on Saturday.
The defeat means that Irish will now need to pick up maximum points against Edinburgh and Cardiff Blues in their final two matches and also hope other results go their way if they are to qualify from the group.
While it seems unlikely - especially judging by Saturday's lacklustre showing against previously winless Racing - Booth believes his team are still in with an outside chance.
"I never accept it's over while it's mathematically possible, but if it was hard enough then, it's certainly harder now," he said.
"We've always said how even this group was, the irony is that we need Metro to go and win both their games so I'll be sending every game plan I've got across the channel and see where it takes us."
Should Irish not progress from Pool Two, they will no doubt look back at the encounter on Saturday as one of the defining moments of their Heineken Cup adventure.
After storming back in the second half to win in Paris a week earlier, Exiles were expected to yet again get the better of their French opponents on home soil, but they were unable to break down a resilient defence until the very last move of the match.
"We did have a lot of possession but we had a lot of slow ball, you have to credit Racing for that, they are big physical and were very methodical," commented Booth.
"When you're up against the best sides in Europe you have to take your chances and we didn't take enough of ours. That's very disappointing and probably the other aspect is that we weren't able to control the tempo of the game, those two factors are very significant reasons why we are talking about a loss.
"It's all about getting to the red zone and getting something from it and they did that well in the first half so they could control the scoreboard, if you're controlling the scoreboard then you can put pressure on the other team."
Tom Homer was Irish's top scorer with 14 points and the opening exchanges were punctuated by his penalties and man-of-the-match Jonathan Wisniewski's replies for Racing.
It was Wisniewski who ultimately had the better of an uninspiring first half, kicking three penalties and two drop goals to give the visitors a 15-12 lead at the interval.
The Racing fly-half added another drop goal early in the second half before the French side's dominant start to the period was rewarded with a breakaway try from Sireli Bobo.
The successful conversion opened a 13-point lead for Racing but they were forced on to the backfoot when Wisniewski was sin-binned for a deliberate knock down.
Despite their numerical advantage, Irish were unable to break down the French side and could have fallen further behind were it not for a superb last-ditch tackle by Adam Thompstone on Virimi Vakatawa when the Fijian looked certain to score.
Exiles eventually managed to get a stranglehold on possession but were hampered close to the line by costly infringements and didn't manage to break through the Racing defence until David Paice scored with the final move of the match.
Homer kicked the extras to bag a losing point for Irish but they will need much more than that when the Heineken Cup resumes in mid-January if they are to make it out of Pool Two.
Up next for Exiles is a home match against Exeter Chiefs on December 27 (1.30pm ko).
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