ALL IN THE SCRUM: A rugby miscellany
TWO OF Exeter Chiefs Irish brigade, Gareth Steenson (17 points) and club captain Tom Hayes, made the ESPN team of the opening weekend of the English Premiership following a momentous victory for the newly-promoted side over Gloucester.
They’ll be in contention once again after the weekend. Exeter almost produced a stunning upset against the Tigers at Welford Road and Steenson and Hayes were central to that performance.
Hayes, a brother of Munster and Ireland international prop John, was excellent in all facets of the game, while Steenson kicked 12 points with three conversions and two penalties. His game management was good, too, but he’ll have to work on his tackling.
Steenson (26), was a member of the Ireland team that was beaten in the Under-21 World Cup final by New Zealand in Glasgow (2004), one that included current senior internationals Jamie Heaslip, Tomás O’Leary and Tommy Bowe.
Filling out the link to that match was a second-half replacement for the Exeter Chiefs last Saturday, David Gannon. He captained Ireland against the baby All Blacks six years ago.
Incidentally a third member of that Ireland Under-21 team, Paul McKenzie, is also at Exeter. He played outside centre for the A side that beat Bath 13-9, making a brilliant break for the game’s try.
Boyet berates Bourgoin fans
IT APPEARS the fans of Bourgoin have quite a short memory, or at least a subjective one, judging by their reaction to Benjamin Boyet. The former French international spent 13 seasons at the club but during the summer moved to Bayonne. Returning with his new team for a French Championship match he met with a hostile reaction.
In an interview with Midi Olympique he explained: “I heard whistles from the kick-off at the start of the match. This type of behaviour saddens me. It proves that some people have difficulty understanding why you have to leave a club at a particular point in your career.
“That said, I don’t want to give importance to these types of people who pat you on the back when you’re in their camp and then shoot you in the back when you leave.”
Exiles: Where they’re from
LEINSTER’S recent 20-17 victory over the Exiles at under-19 level prompted this column to try to uncover where the players in the latter team were drawn from, because there was no information on the IRFU website at that point. They rectified that later in the week.
Last week the English RFU announced an extended under-20 training squad that contained four players from London Irish and an under-18 training panel that boasted five of the club’s youngsters. Irish’s academy, partially funded by the English RFU, is producing a steady stream of players for English underage sides but none for Ireland.
Things would appear to be different judging by the composition of the Exiles Under-19 team that contains four players who started the match against Leinster – Oliver Clements, Stephen Hegarty, Greg Barrett and Tom McDonagh – with an affiliation to London Irish with a further two, Ryan Jabolonski and Seán O’Connell on the bench.
However, these young players are not part of the London Irish academy but appear to be members of the amateur wing of the club at Sunbury. The Exiles set-up is starting to once again provide more than the token player for Irish underage teams and also the senior national side, with Dan Tuohy, Ed O’Donoghue and Rhys Ruddock its most recent poster boys.
EXILES UNDER-19(team v Leinster): L Marmion (Kirkham Grammar School/Gwynefedd); P Brocken (St Anselems/Wirral), M Dever (St Benedicts/Old Priorians), A Magowan (Royal School Armagh/Armagh), T Chellew (Northampton School/Northampton Saints); O Clements (St Paul's College/London Irish), K Marmion (Kirkham Grammar School/Brecon); T Margetson (Wellington College/Old Ruthlishians), T Crozier (RGS Colchester/Colchester), K Ball (Wellington College/Saracens); T McDonagh (Queen's School/London Irish), M Jones (Lokethorpe School/Oxford); A Richardson (Bryanston School/Wimbourne), G Barrett (St Paul's College/London Irish), S Hegarty (Salesian School/London Irish).
Medical joker: Creevy hooked
LEINSTER’S Heineken Cup pool opponents Clermont Auvergne have signed Argentine hooker Agustin Creevy under the medical joker rule following an injury to South African Willie Wepener. The latter will be out for three months after sustaining a hand injury recently. Wepener should return in time though for the back-to-back European clashes with Leinster in December.
The 25-year-old Creevy – he played for Biarritz between 2007 and 2009 before returning home – won seven caps for Argentina and joins another Puma hooker, Mario Ledesma, at the French club. Ledesma said of his countryman: “He’s a very powerful player and very good with ball in hand. He’s making very fast progress.”
“I CAN’T bear to watch the Springboks playing like this anymore. I’m ready to do a hospital job and coach the Springboks to the World Cup in 2011 if the South African Rugby Union (SARU) wants me.”
Jake White, who coached the Springboks to their 2007 World Cup success in France, ramps up the pressure on his beleaguered and increasingly eccentric outpourings of his successor Peter de Villiers.
Henson making moves
GAVIN HENSON can't stay out of the headlines these days. If it's not Strictly Come Dancing, it's another television show, 71 Degrees North. If it is not drawing the ire of current and former internationals in being used at the poster boy for Wales' new jersey despite his continuing sabbatical from the game, it is reports he has instructed solicitors to negotiate an end to his Ospreys contract.
Henson recently told the Guardian: "I have had a tough couple of months with my personal life and career-wise with my rugby team. It is all up in the air and all in the hands of solicitors. It is a pity, but I have to do this now ( Strictly Come Dancing). I really wanted to be back on the rugby field and I will do so after learning how to dance."
Will that be to a different beat in London, though, from a rugby perspective?
On this day
September 13th, 1924: A New Zealand team that would come to be known as The Invincibles began a 30-match tour of Europe with an 11-0 win against Devon. The All Blacks won every match, including victories over England, France, Ireland and Wales, but were denied a Grand Slam when the Scots refused to play them following a row over expenses.
The then 19-year-old George Nepia played in all 30 games on tour, going on to become an icon in the game. The fullback was joined by other luminaries such as Bert Cooke, Mark Nicholls and Maurice Brownlie.
