London Irish

London Irish
Full name London Irish Rugby Football Club
Union Middlesex RFU, Surrey RFU, Ireland RFU
Nickname(s) The Exiles
Founded 1898 (1898)
Location Reading, Berkshire, England
Ground(s) Madejski Stadium (Capacity: 24,161[1])
Chairman Kieran McCarthy
President Michael Crossan
Director of Rugby Nick Kennedy
League(s) Aviva Premiership
2016–17 Championship, 1st (promoted)
1st kit
2nd kit
Official website
london-irish.com

London Irish RFC is an English rugby union club originally 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. It competes in the top division of English rugby union between 1996 and 2015-16 and again from 2017 after being promoted from the Greene King IPA Championship. Whilst in the Premiership, the club also competes in the Anglo-Welsh Cup as well as one of the two Europe-wide club competitions—the European Champions Cup or European Challenge Cup, depending on their performance in the previous season. In 2016 it played in the British and Irish Cup in addition to the Championship. The club will continue to play its home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire until at least 2019.

The team plays in green and white colours, with a black 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 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 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]

The club announced on 15 August 2016 of 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

2016–17 RFU Championship Table
Club Played Won Drawn Lost Points for Points against Points diff Try bonus Loss bonus Points
1 London Irish (C) 20 19 0 1 712 290 422 13 1 91
2 Yorkshire Carnegie (F) 20 15 0 5 619 461 158 11 3 74
3 Ealing Trailfinders (SF) 20 12 1 6 584 427 157 7 3 60
4 Doncaster Knights (SF) 20 12 0 8 514 424 90 9 1 58
5 Jersey Reds 20 11 0 9 459 451 8 7 7 58
6 Cornish Pirates 20 9 2 9 559 497 62 8 7 55
7 London Scottish 20 7 0 13 465 605 −140 7 5 40
8 Bedford Blues 20 6 1 13 496 569 −73 9 5 40
9 Nottingham Rugby 20 7 1 12 419 542 −123 4 5 39
10 Richmond 20 5 0 15 347 585 −238 4 2 26
11 Rotherham Titans 20 4 1 15 333 656 −323 2 2 22
  • 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 are promotion play-off places. (There is no relegation this season.)
Updated: 15 April 2017
Source:"Greene King IPA Championship". England Rugby. RFU. Retrieved 19 February 2017. 
  • Had either Ealing or Doncaster won the play-offs, they would not have accepted promotion, causing no side to be promoted and the bottom Premiership club retaining their place. This did not happen, as London Irish and Yorkshire Carnegie (both of which met the Premiership's minimum standards) won the play-off semi-finals.
Notes

    Current squad

    2017-18 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
    Darren Dawidiuk Hooker England England
    Saia Fainga'a Hooker Australia Australia
    Todd Gleave Hooker England England
    David Paice Hooker England England
    Dave Porecki Hooker Australia Australia
    Lovejoy Chawatama Prop England England
    Ben Franks Prop New Zealand New Zealand
    Harry Elrington Prop England England
    Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi Prop England England
    Ollie Hoskins Prop Australia Australia
    Richard Palframan Prop South Africa South Africa
    Petrus du Plessis Prop South Africa South Africa
    Gordon Reid Prop Scotland Scotland
    Manasa Saulo Prop Fiji Fiji
    Tom Smallbone Prop England England
    Sebastian de Chaves Lock South Africa South Africa
    Josh McNally Lock England England
    Filo Paulo Lock Samoa Samoa
    Will Lloyd Lock New Zealand New Zealand
    Conor Gilsenan Flanker Ireland Ireland
    Lasha Lomidze Flanker Georgia (country) Georgia
    Max Northcote-Green Flanker England England
    Ofisa Treviranus Flanker Samoa Samoa
    Mike Coman Number 8 New Zealand New Zealand
    Blair Cowan Number 8 Scotland Scotland
    Jake Schatz Number 8 Australia Australia
    Player Position Union
    Ben Meehan Scrum-half Australia Australia
    Brendan McKibbin Scrum-half Australia Australia
    Scott Steele Scrum-half Scotland Scotland
    Theo Brophy-Clews Fly-half England England
    James Marshall Fly-half New Zealand New Zealand
    Ciaran Hearn Centre Canada Canada
    Fergus Mulchrone Centre England England
    Asaeli Tikoirotuma Centre Fiji Fiji
    Johnny Williams Centre England England
    Tom Fowlie Wing England England
    Alex Lewington Wing England England
    Napolioni Nalaga Wing Fiji Fiji
    Topsy Ojo Wing England England
    Ben Ransom Wing England England
    Tommy Bell Fullback England England
    Luke McLean Fullback Italy Italy
    Greig Tonks Fullback Scotland Scotland

    Senior Academy squad

    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
    Sam Collingridge Lock England England
    Austin Hay Prop England England
    Josh Basham Lock England England
    Jack Cooke Flanker England England
    Isaac Curtis-Harris Flanker England England
    Rory Brand Scrum-half England England
    Jacob Atkins Scrum-half England England
    Tom Parton Fly-half England England
    Ollie Hassell-Collins Centre England England
    Matt Williams Centre England England
    Joe Cokanasiga Wing England England
    Ben Loader Fullback England England

    Notable former players

    Current kit

    The kit is supplied by XBlades. The 2017-18 kit is expected to be released in late July or early August.

    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.[9]

    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 the English Premiership at the Premier Rugby Marketing Awards.[10]

    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.[11]

    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

    See also

    References

    1. ↑ "Madejski Stadium information". readingfc.co.uk. 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. ↑ Archived 15 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
    10. ↑ "Digger Wins 'Best Mascot' Award". London Irish. Retrieved 26 February 2010.
    11. ↑ "Steven Orton is fundraising for Spinal Research – JustGiving". JustGiving. Retrieved 26 February 2010.

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