by Dylan James
A drop goal, a red card, and a try at the death. European knockout rugby never disappoints, and tonight that was made especially apparent.
After initially making a brilliant line break through Cory Hill, the Blues were rewarded for their hard work just minutes later as Kristian Dacey capped off a clever tap and go which caught Irish napping. 3-12.
Lock Seb Davies was heavily involved and not for the first time, making another clever break down the neck of the field and executing a perfect grubber through to Josh Adams.
Adams collected well and crossed for Cardiff’s second try of the game, a quite remarkable piece of play by Davies to say the least! Evans added the extras and stretched Cardiff’s lead to 14-3.
On the half hour mark Irish were through for their first score with Ben Loader. Fly-half Jackson took the tackle well and offloaded expertly to Loader who turned on the gas and completed a brilliant training ground move. Jackson slotted the extras and Cardiff’s winning lead was cut to seven points. 10-17.
Just before the break, Jackson was again involved as he shunted the Irish closer to the Blues with a another penalty, locking the score in at 13-17 for the first 40.
Just six minutes after the restart, Will Goodrick-Clarke was shown a red card after a very high tackle on Dillon Lewis, also leading with the shoulder, thus warranting the ultimate price. Jarrod Evans stretched the Blues lead with the following penalty and the score locked in at 13-20.
Irish surprised everyone when Ollie Hassell-Collins rounded off some great work from Brophy Clews to cross into the corner. Jackson squared the game from the tee and the score was locked in at 20-20 with 30 minutes to play.
Despite Ben Loader’s early heroic’s, he joined Goodrick-Clarke on the naughty step after seeing yellow for a shoulder to the face of Tomos Williams. Irish were down to rugby league numbers with more than a third of the game to play.
Replacement Jason Harries crossed into the corner on 57 minutes and put Cardiff into the lead yet again. Tomos Williams, Jarrod Evans and Willis Halaholo combined well as they spread the ball out wide to Harries who made an instant impact on the game with his score. From a difficult angle, Evans struggled to find the gap and the score remained at 20-25.
After a brilliant break from Jason Harries, he offloaded neatly to replacement Lloyd Williams, who crossed without a huge amount of contest. Evans slotted the extra two and stretched Cardiff’s lead to 20-32.
Replacements seemed to make a huge impact throughout the game, and Terrence Hepetema only made that more valid. Hepetema confidently shrugged off a tackle and left Jackson with the simple job of grabbing the extra two points. With just six minutes remaining, there were just five points in it.
And those five points came.
Hassell-Collins crossed for his second score after Halaholo failed to prevent the line break, and the team with 14 men drew level with five minutes left. Jackson stepped up once again and made no mistake from a difficult angle, putting Irish into a two point lead.
You would expect a drop goal from here, and this is exactly what Jarrod Evans had on his mind. With a penalty in the pipeline after Jackson wouldn’t roll away, Evans dropped deep and slotted a perfect three points to put Cardiff into a one point lead.
The drama didn’t stop there.
With just a minute remaining, Curtis Rona secured a try at the death with the prospect of another play looking impossible with the time on the clock. Jackson took his time with the conversion and whistle blew on a hugely dramatic European fixture.
TEAMS
London Irish: Tom Parton; Ben Loader, Curtis Rona, Theo Brophy Clews, Ollie Hassell-Collins; Paddy Jackson, Nick Phipps; Will Goodrick-Clarke, Agustin Creevy, Lovejoy Chawatama, George Nott, Matt Rogerson (capt), Blair Cowan, Albert Tuisue.
Replacements: Matt Cornish, Facundo Gigena, Oliver Hoskins, Chunya Munga, Ben Donnell, Sean O’Brien, Ben Meehan, Terrence Hepetema.
Cardiff Blues: Matthew Morgan; Josh Adams, Rey Lee-Lo, Willis Halaholo, Hallam Amos; Jarrod Evans, Tomos Williams; Corey Domachowski, Kristian Dacey, Dillon Lewis, Seb Davies, Cory Hill, Josh Navidi, James Botham, Josh Turnbull (capt).
Replacements: Liam Belcher, Rhys Carré, Dmitri Arhip, Rory Thornton, Olly Robinson, Lloyd Williams, Ben Thomas, Jason Harries
