| Full name | London Irish Rugby Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Exiles | ||
| Location | Reading, England | ||
| Ground(s) | Madejski Stadium (Capacity: 24,250) | ||
| Chairman | Ireland Andrew Coppel | ||
| Coach(es) | Toby Booth | ||
| Captain(s) | Clarke Dermody | ||
| League(s) | Aviva Premiership | ||
| 2010–11 | 6th | ||
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| Official website | |||
| www.london-irish.com | |||
London Irish RFC is an English rugby union club based in Sunbury, Surrey, where the senior squad train, the youth teams and senior academy play home games, and the club maintain their administrative offices. The senior squad play home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading and compete in the top division of English rugby union, the Aviva Premiership. The club also compete in the Anglo-Welsh Cup as well as one of the two Europe-wide club competitions—the Heineken Cup or European Challenge Cup, depending on their performance in the previous season. The club played their home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire until 2026.
The team plays in green and white colours, with a reversed away strip. London Irish won its first major trophy in 2002, claiming the Powergen Cup (the competition that later became the Anglo-Welsh Cup). Irish have also reached the final of the 2009 Guinness Premiership, losing 10-9 to Leicester at Twickenham.[1] In the 2007/08 the team came close to a place in the Heineken Cup Final losing out to Toulouse 15-21 in a tense encounter at Twickenham.[2] The club's mascot is an Irish Wolfhound called Digger.
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Also known as The Exiles, London Irish RFC was founded in 1898 for the young Irishmen of London; it was modelled on the already established London Welsh and London Scottish teams. London Irish suffered during World War I and the Irish War of Independence. It was not until 1923 when the Irish Free State was established and peace returned that the club was able to welcome players from across the Irish Sea on a regular basis.
By the late 1920s the club boasted its first "home grown" Ireland international in S J 'Cags' Cagney who won 13 caps between 1925 and 1929. The club developed a home of its own in 1931 at The Avenue in Sunbury, the first game was played on 5 December against London Welsh; the result was an honourable 8–8 draw. Although the club now play their games as tenants of Reading FC at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, the ground at Sunbury is still its spiritual home.
The 1950s was a period of mixed fortunes for London Irish. In 1959–1960 season London Irish only lost 2 games all season, featuring Ireland International players such as Andy Mulligan & Sean McDermott, Mike (C.M.H.) Gibson (played 1 game in the late 1960s), Tony O'Reilly (who played a handful of games in 1970) and Ollie Waldron (who played in the late 1960s-early 70s), all graced the Sunbury pitch.
The improving quality of fixtures demanded a change in attitude to training and playing as the sixties became the seventies. Under the leadership of the great hooker Ken Kennedy, with the assistance of exceptional players like Nick Hegarty, Mick Molloy and Barry Bresnihan, London Irish became a force to be reckoned with once more. In 1976–77 the Rugby Football Union introduced proper club merit tables and in that season London Irish finished first in the London Division with six wins out of seven. The Irish made visits to France and famously to South Africa in 1977 where the club became the first touring side to play so many mixed race teams.
In playing terms the eighties were another period of inconsistency. The first team struggled to find reliable form as work pressures made more demands on players' time making them unavailable for regular training and matches. Happily, at the lower levels and socially London Irish continued to thrive. In 1990–91 London Irish were promoted to the first division with a side containing four new Ireland internationals: Simon Geoghegan, Jim Staples, David Curtis and Rob Saunders, the youngest ever captain of his country at 22 years of age.
The harsh financial realities of playing at the top end of the game in England gradually became clear to all the country's senior clubs including London Irish in the early years of the decade. Operating losses mounted and but for the generosity of key benefactors at the time, the club would have struggled to survive. The financial struggles were reflected on the pitch where London Irish failed to make any impact in the leagues despite employing the services of a number of high profile coaches.
In 1999 London Irish merged with London Scottish and Richmond to form a new umbrella company to support the professional team which now competes in the Aviva Premiership in England. An amateur club was also formed at this time, London Irish Amateur RFC, which remains in Sunbury. The club won its first piece of silverware in 2002 by beating Northampton Saints in the Powergen Cup final at Twickenham.
London Irish have a thriving academy set up, with players such as Nick Kennedy, Topsy Ojo and Delon Armitage having gone on to play for the senior side and be internationally capped.
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.
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 [3] until December 2008.
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| Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points For | Points Against | Points Difference | Tries For | Tries Against | Try Bonus | Losing Bonus | Points | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harlequins | 12 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 317 | 195 | +122 | 34 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 47 | ||||
| 2 | Saracens | 12 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 252 | 189 | +63 | 19 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 40 | ||||
| 3 | Northampton Saints | 12 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 286 | 201 | +85 | 28 | 17 | 2 | 2 | 32 | ||||
| 4 | Leicester Tigers | 12 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 319 | 306 | +13 | 33 | 32 | 3 | 3 | 32 | ||||
| 5 | Sale Sharks | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 266 | 291 | -25 | 25 | 27 | 1 | 4 | 29 | ||||
| 6 | London Irish | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 285 | 279 | +6 | 23 | 23 | 2 | 5 | 29 | ||||
| 7 | Gloucester Rugby | 12 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 260 | 233 | +27 | 24 | 20 | 1 | 5 | 28 | ||||
| 8 | Exeter Chiefs | 12 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 226 | 242 | -16 | 18 | 22 | 1 | 6 | 27 | ||||
| 9 | Bath Rugby | 12 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 216 | 226 | -10 | 18 | 14 | 0 | 3 | 23 | ||||
| 10 | Worcester Warriors | 12 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 154 | 205 | -51 | 9 | 18 | 0 | 3 | 21 | ||||
| 11 | London Wasps | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 191 | 257 | -66 | 19 | 19 | 1 | 4 | 21 | ||||
| 12 | Newcastle Falcons | 12 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 197 | 345 | -148 | 14 | 38 | 0 | 1 | 11 | ||||
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If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
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| Green background (rows 1 to 4) are play-off places, and receive berths in the 2012–13 Heineken Cup. Blue background (rows 5 and 6) are clubs that do not make the play-offs, but will receive Heineken Cup berths. Red background (row 12) to be relegated if the champion of the RFU Championship meets the requirements for promotion. Updated 09 October 2011 — Current English Leagues
source:Premiership Rugby Notes: |
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2011/12 Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under IRB eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-IRB nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under IRB eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-IRB nationality.
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| Full name | London Irish Amateur Rugby Football Club |
|---|---|
| Union | RFU |
| Nickname(s) | Irish, The Wild Geese[32] |
| Founded | September 1999[33] |
| Location | Sunbury-on-Thames, England |
| Ground(s) | The Avenue |
| Chairman | David Fitzgerald |
| President | Bosco McAuliffe |
| Coach(es) | Jamie Balls MBE |
| Captain(s) | David Reilly |
| League(s) | National League 3 London & SE |
| Official website | |
| www.london-irish-amateur.co.uk | |
London Irish also run London Irish Amateur for non-professionals to allow them to improve in Rugby. The team play at the location of London Irish's training ground and offices, The Avenue in Sunbury. Some players such as Justin Bishop and Kieran Campbell have come through the ranks to play for London Irish.[34]
Digger is an Irish Wolfhound and official mascot of London Irish. He has an extremely important job of providing support to the Club.
On 30 May 2003 Digger won the "Best Mascot" award in the Zurich Premiership at the Premier Rugby Marketing Awards held at Twickenham.[35]
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.[36]
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 although Digger remains the Top Dog. As well as the two mascots, there is also a real Wolfhound, Mr Doyle, who also attends the home games. Before Mr Doyle there was also another Wolfhound, Jumbo, before Jumbo retired.
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