London Irish

London Irish
Full name London Irish Rugby Football Club
Union RFU, Middlesex RFU, Surrey RFU, Irish RFU
Nickname(s) The Exiles
Founded 1898 (1898)
Location Reading, Berkshire, England
Ground(s) Madejski Stadium (Capacity: 24,161[1])
Chairman Kieran McCarthy
CEO Brian Facer
President Mick Crossan
Director of Rugby Declan Kidney
Coach(es) Les Kiss
League(s) RFU Championship
2017–18 Premiership, 12th (relegated)
Official website
london-irish.com

London Irish RFC is a professional English rugby union club, with an Irish Identity. It was originally based in Sunbury, Surrey, where the senior squad train, youth teams and senior academy play home games, and the club maintain their administrative offices. It has competed in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union, every season since its inception in 1996-97, apart from the 2016-17 and 2018-19 seasons, in which they competed in the Greene King IPA Championship, winning the league in 2017. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup and has participated in both the European Champions Cup or European Challenge Cup. In 2016 it played in the British and Irish Cup in addition to the Championship. The club will play its home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire until at least 2019.

London Irish won its first major trophy in 2002, claiming the Powergen Cup (the competition that later became the Anglo-Welsh Cup). Irish also reached the final of the 2009 English Premiership, narrowly losing 10–9 to Leicester Tigers at Twickenham Stadium.[2] In the 2007–08 season the team came close to a place in the Heineken Cup Final losing out to Stade Toulousain 15–21 in a tense semi-final encounter at Twickenham Stadium.[3] The club's mascot is an Irish Wolfhound called Digger.

History

The squad that played Racing Métro 92 at Parc des Princes in 1899.
London Irish playing at the Madejski Stadium with 22,648 people in attendance.
A match v Ulster in 2006.
London Irish's line out against Leicester Tigers.
London Irish drummers and fans at the Madejski Stadium.

London Irish was the last club to be formed in England by working and student exiles from the home countries, following London Scottish in 1878 and London Welsh in 1885. The first game took place on 1 October 1898 against the former Hammersmith club at Herne Hill Athletic Ground, London Irish winning by eight points to three. The team benefited from the early recruitment of vet and Irish international Louis Magee.[4]

Academy

London Irish manage their own academy, with players such as Nick Kennedy, Jonathan Joseph, Topsy Ojo and Delon Armitage having gone on to play for the senior side and be internationally capped.

Stadium

London Irish play at the Madejski Stadium, in Reading. Madejski is the home of Reading FC and was opened in August 1998. The ground is a 24,161 all-seater capacity stadium, and was the largest used as a regular home ground in the premiership before Wasps moved to the Ricoh Arena in 2014.

With the exception of the annual London Double Header at Twickenham, all London Irish home matches are played at the Madejski. The largest crowd for a London Irish match was for a game against London Wasps on 15 March 2008 during the 2007–08 Guinness Premiership. The crowd of 23,790 was also the highest attendance for a regular season Guinness Premiership match[5] until December 2008.

On 12 March 2016 London Irish played their first home Premiership match away from Madejski (and Twickenham), and also the first-ever Premiership match outside England, when they travelled to the USA to face Saracens at the New York Red Bulls' Red Bull Arena in the New York metropolitan area.[6]

On 15 August 2016, the club announced their intention to return to London and that they were in formal discussion with Hounslow London Borough Council to play at Brentford FC's new stadium.[7] On 10 February 2017, the club confirmed that Brentford had approved their application to use the stadium for rugby, effectively allowing them to move into the new stadium from its opening season.[8]

Current standings

2018–19 RFU Championship Table
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points for Points against Points diff Try bonus Loss bonus Points
1Bedford Blues0000000000
2Cornish Pirates0000000000
3Coventry0000000000
4Doncaster Knights0000000000
5Ealing Trailfinders0000000000
6Hartpury College0000000000
7Jersey Reds0000000000
8London Irish0000000000
9London Scottish0000000000
10Nottingham0000000000
11Richmond0000000000
12Yorkshire Carnegie0000000000
  • If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
  1. Number of matches won
  2. Difference between points for and against
  3. Total number of points for
  4. Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams
  5. Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
Green background is the promotion place. Pink background is the relegation place.
Updated:
Source: "Greene King IPA Championship". NCA Rugby.

Coaching staff

Current squad

The London Irish squad for the 2018–19 season is:[9]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union
Saia Fainga'a Hooker Australia Australia
Motu Matu'u Hooker Samoa Samoa
Dave Porecki Hooker Australia Australia
Lovejoy Chawatama Prop Zimbabwe Zimbabwe
Pat Cilliers Prop South Africa South Africa
Harry Elrington Prop England England
Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi Prop England England
Ollie Hoskins Prop Australia Australia
Gordon Reid Prop Scotland Scotland
Manasa Saulo Prop Fiji Fiji
Sebastian de Chaves Lock South Africa South Africa
Barney Maddison Lock England England
Josh McNally Lock England England
Filo Paulo Lock Samoa Samoa
Sam Twomey Lock England England
Franco van der Merwe Lock South Africa South Africa
Mike Coman Back row New Zealand New Zealand
Blair Cowan Back row Scotland Scotland
Conor Gilsenan Back row Ireland Ireland
TJ Ioane Back row Samoa Samoa
Max Northcote-Green Back row England England
Matt Rogerson Back row England England
Jake Schatz Back row Australia Australia
Ofisa Treviranus Back row Samoa Samoa
Player Position Union
Brendan McKibbin Scrum-half Australia Australia
Ben Meehan Scrum-half Australia Australia
Scott Steele Scrum-half Scotland Scotland
Theo Brophy-Clews Fly-half England England
Stephen Myler Fly-half England England
Bryce Campbell Centre United States United States
Ciaran Hearn Centre Canada Canada
Brendan Macken Centre Ireland Ireland
Fergus Mulchrone Centre England England
Tom Stephenson Centre England England
Tom Fowlie Wing England England
Napolioni Nalaga Wing Fiji Fiji
Topsy Ojo Wing England England
Tommy Bell Fullback England England
Luke McLean Fullback Italy Italy
Greig Tonks Fullback Scotland Scotland

Senior Academy squad

The London Irish academy squad is:[10]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union
Austin Hay Prop England England
Sam Collingridge Lock England England
Jack Cooke Flanker England England
Isaac Curtis-Harris Flanker England England
Player Position Union
Rory Brand Scrum-half Scotland Scotland
Jacob Atkins Fly-half England England
Tom Parton Fly-half England England
Ollie Hassell-Collins Centre England England
Matt Williams Centre England England
Ben Loader Fullback England England

Notable former players

Current kit

The kit is supplied by XBlades. The 2017-18 kits celebrates 120 years of Exiles by returning to a traditional dark green and retro collar design with 'Exiles from 1898' inscribed on the inside back collar and the London Irish emblem on the left chest. The jersey also features a white grid design covering the shoulders and progressing down both sides and continuing onto the shorts.

The club's principle sponsor Powerday appears on the front centre below XBlades' logo, with Thames Materials on the right chest. Other club sponsors Pump Technology and Keltbray appear on the back with Redrow Homes and Turmec Teoranta on the right sleeve. The playing shorts feature the logo of sponsors VGC Group and Cherwell Software in addition to the continued white grid design.

The away kit is a sky blue colour with a simpler two broad striped design on the shoulder of the jersey.

Honours

London Irish Amateur logo.

London Irish Amateur

London Irish also host London Irish Amateur RFC (a separate legal entity) for non-professionals to allow them to improve in Rugby. The team play at the location of London Irish's training ground and offices, Hazelwood in Sunbury. Some players such as Justin Bishop and Kieran Campbell have come through the ranks to play for London Irish.[11]

Digger

Digger

Digger is an Irish Wolfhound and official mascot of London Irish. He has an important job of providing support to the Club.

On 30 May 2003 Digger won the "Best Mascot" award in Premiership Rugby at the Premier Rugby Marketing Awards.[12]

On 23 April 2006, Digger ran the London Marathon raising money for Spinal Research. Digger finished the marathon in a time of 6 hours 39 minutes 31 seconds.[13]

Colleagues

Digger was joined by his cousin, Duggie, from the 2006–07 season. Much taller and much slower, Duggie has proved popular with younger children attending matchdays. As well as Digger, there is also a real Irish Wolfhound, Mr Doyle, who also attends the home games. Before Mr Doyle, his Great Uncle, Jumbo, attended home games before Jumbo retired and eventually died.

Trivia

  • The Exiles once took part in an episode of Jackass. They were given the job of teaching Johnny Knoxville and Chris Pontius how to play rugby, no matter how rough it got.
  • A main character in the book, The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edward D Malone, a journalist, was also a player on the London Irish and scored a try.
  • YouTube phenomenon KSI (entertainer) made videos with London Irish at Hazelwood with Rule'm Sports.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Madejski Stadium information". readingfc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 7 May 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  2. ↑ Palmer, Bryn (16 May 2009). "Leicester 10–9 London Irish". BBC News.
  3. ↑ "London Irish 15–21 Toulouse". BBC News. 26 April 2008.
  4. ↑ Club history –beginnings london-irish.com Retrieved 20 September 2015
  5. ↑ "No Luck on Paddy's Day for Irish". Guinness Premiership.com. Retrieved 16 March 2008.
  6. ↑ "London Irish Aviva Premiership Rugby match in USA". London Irish. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  7. ↑ Hyde, Nathan. "London Irish could soon leave Madejski Stadium". Get Reading. Trinity Mirror Southern. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  8. ↑ "Approval for rugby". Brentford Community Stadium. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  9. ↑ "First Team". London Irish. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  10. ↑ "Academy Players". London Irish. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  11. ↑ Archived 15 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ↑ "Digger Wins 'Best Mascot' Award". London Irish. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
  13. ↑ "Steven Orton is fundraising for Spinal Research – JustGiving". JustGiving. Retrieved 26 February 2010.

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