Luck of the Irish? Blues triumph
Oxford's first home win of the season wasn't exactly the champagne performance that everybody had hoped for against the in form Zurich Premiership side. The first half was a largely unbroken affair that stayed in the midfield, the only exceptions to this rule coming from a try apiece. The second half was better with play reaching into both sides' 22's, although it was (similarly to the first half) disjointed and inconsistent due to large numbers of injuries stopping the game.
For the Blues it was without fail a much stronger performance, particularly in ball retention in the Irish half, which ultimately swayed this game in Oxford's favour.
Following an eighth minute Oxford penalty which was comfortably kicked over by full-back Ryan O'Mahoney, it took until the 22nd minute for any event of note to take place. However when it came, it was an Oxford try, back-row forward Peter Raftery breaking from the pack and dragging three Irish players over the line on his shoulders. This appeared to kick a little more life into London Irish, particularly Topsy Ojo, whose pace caused massive problems for the Oxford defence throughout the night. The resultant pressure came good when Oxford unprofessionally gave away a penalty try. One more penalty for O'Mahoney left the score at 11-7 at half time.
The second half was, with the odd exception, a show by Oxford of how to put pressure on for long periods of time. This was, however, often let down by finding good positions and then being frustrated by the Irish defence to the point of giving away penalties and having to start again from outside the Irish 22. It took until the 50th minute for their pressure to relate to points, when wing Adam Slade ran through five tackles to create a huge overlap in which replacement full-back Tom Maynard lay in wait. The conversion was scored by Slade to drag the gap out to 18 points to 7.
The Irish reply came within five minutes. Ojo's brake-neck speed reared its head again, finally crossing being caught by the Oxford five metre line only to pass inside to Delon Armitage who continued his run once over the try-line to touch down behind left upright. Twenty minutes of Oxford pressure ensued, finally resulting in two late tries which sealed the match. On the 73rd minute replacement Prop Joe Clark broke through the middle of the Irish pack to hand off to scrum-half James Gaunt, whom then put in a brilliant long pass to send Maynard over for his second try of the night. An equally brilliant solo effort for centre Ross Lavery resulted in the final try, coming well into injury time.
Overall it was an encouraging performance which, where it may not have left off precisely where last week's sparkling performance against Wasps had finished, it definitely saw a deserved win and another step forward towards the Varsity Match. OURFC director of rugby, Steve Hill, was as forward looking as ever, now giving the blues squad five days off to "get them fired up to take on an impressive Major Stanley's XV on November 12th". With another impressive Stanley's XV promised, it would be a big scalp to take in the build towards Twickenham.
Photo: Matt Becker
30th Oct 2003