2GS The Sunday Times November 28, 2021 21
Daley-Mclean goes out
in style in the thrashing
of South Africa
African contingent and Australia’s
Fijian contingent decided to cease
their present international careers,
then both teams would be rapidly
shattered and in three years and for
ever after, South Africa and Fiji will be
contesting every World Cup final.
Back to the rugby season of mists
and mellow fruitfulness. Attendances
were sky-high in some parts and
horrendously bad in others. Italy’s
horrible slide continued. They did
manage to beat Uruguay for their first
win for what seems like decades but
only 29,000 gathered in Rome to
watch the All Blacks and a total of
only 7,000 watched their other two
games. Worrying.
In Wales, the crowds were
booming. More than 60,000 watched
Wales v Fiji even though Wales,
crazily, had three other autumn
games. The treasurer must have been
thrilled; not so the stadium cleaners.
The Principality Stadium itself has
been besmirched. It is now a mighty
drinkathon. When Wales played
South Africa, an idiot lurched
drunkenly out of the stands and was
lying in the path of Liam Williams as
the Wales player motored towards
the line. Williams did well to resist
what must have been an urge to tread
all over the idiot on his way. Avoiding
the head, though, we don’t want any
nasty injuries.
Then at the Wales v Australia
game, another idiot vomited all over a
young lad enjoying his day. The Welsh
Rugby Union has regressed to a
vision-free, amateurish bumbling
mess in the past year, and has lost its
clout in the affairs of the sport.
And that was that. Way too many
internationals, but so much drama
and tension, so much on which to
disagree upon as ever and so much
joyous action. In the exquisite play of
Ntamack and the thunderous power
of Furlong, we did indeed have cause
to declare our support for rugby as an
activity to be treasured to the
heavens.World rankings — and how they
have changed over the course
of the autumn games1 South Africa (1 on Oct 25)
2 New Zealand 2
3 England 44 Ireland 5
5 France 66 Australia 3
7 Scotland 7
8 Wales 99 Argentina 8
10 Japan 10ENGLAND GOING UP,
AUSSIES PLUNGING
trick and Bristol Bears’s Simi Pam took
time off from her NHS work as a
doctor to score a try. South Africa
looked very South African when they
took the field, as they were big. But
they have been rather slow to develop
a credible women’s team. They had
passion, but stood so high in defence
around the fringes that the Barbarians
could have ducked underneath them.
Ayanda Malinga scored their only
try. By the end, the players on the
touchline danced to the music which
was played to greet every try. Rugby
and joy? Everyone in the baleful world
of rugby should thank Daley-Mclean
and her generation for the reminder.ramped it up afterwards. Still their
conversion rate was not up to scratch.
Simmons then went over and,
on 57 minutes, White got past Andre
Esterhuizen as Irish converted
pressure into points. White was the
man to take advantage after a couple
of drives from Irish forwards had put
Quins on the back foot. But Beard’s
second try made it a three-point game
before Irish should have killed it off. In
the end they did.
Tabai Matson, Quins’ senior coach,
said: “Any time you lose at home it’s
frustrating. When we got up in the first
half we definitely had opportunities to
keep moving the scoreboard.”Star man Benhard Janse van Rensburg (L Irish).
Scorers: Harlequins: Tries Beard 2 (21min, 66),
Northmore (35). Cons Allan 2.
London Irish: Tries Creevy (28), Simmons (51),
White (57). Cons Jackson 2. Pen Jackson (4).
Harlequins T Green; O Beard, L Northmore (H Jones
54), A Esterhuizen, C Murley; T Allan (W Edwards
37), D Care; J Marler, J Walker, W Collier (S Kerrod
54), D Lamb (H Tizard 59), S Lewies (capt), J
Chisholm, J Kenningham, T Lawday (V Taulani 69).
London Irish T Parton; K Rowe, C Rona, B Janse van
Rensburg, O Hassell-Collins; P Jackson, N Phipps (B
White 54); W Goodrick-Clarke (A Dell 67), A Creevy
(M Willemse 65), O Hoskins (C Parker 67), A
Coleman (S Mafi 35), R Simmons, M Rogerson
(capt), T Pearson, O Cracknell (A Tuisue 54).
Referee C Ridley (RFU). Attendance 14,816.6 Newcastle Falcons and Worcester
Warriors played out a 24-24 draw at
Kingston Park in a game postponed by
a day due to Storm Arwen. George
McGuigan scored two of Newcastle’s
four tries to help the home side into a
24-17 lead, but a converted try by Billy
Searle earned Worcester a draw.Irish shock champions
with lesson in finishing
The draw specialists London Irish got
another league victory over the line
when they won away from home for
the second time this season, the first
against Exeter Chiefs last month.
Inspired by the midfield
partnership of Curtis Rona and
Benhard Janse van Rensburg and the
Australia lock Rob Simmons, Irish gave
Harlequins a lesson in finishing.
They hardly wasted a chance in
scoring three tries from Agustín
Creevy, Simmons and Ben White, but
then the golden touch deserted them
and Harlequins, fond of a comeback,
nearly wriggled out of trouble.
First, the Irish wing Ollie Hassell-
Collins butchered a two-on-one with
the full back Tom Parton screaming
for the ball on his right. Parton could
have walked in to put Irish 27-19 up
with eight minutes left.
Then Quins threatened another one
of their grandstand finishes when the
wing Cadan Murley split Irish open
with the clock in the red. But Irish
scrambled and their second league
win of the season was in the bag. This
moves them up to seventh, while the
losing bonus point takes Quins up to
second until Saracens play today.
Irish have beaten both of last year’s
finalists on the road so they know how
to pick their moments and this win
was built on defensive doggedness.
“It was an emotional game for us,”
Les Kiss, the head coach, said. “To get
away from a draw is very welcome but
it was on the back of our defence. In
the second half, we started to play
some more rugby but it was on the
back of our defence we got the result.”
The sold-out signs were up at the
Stoop, proving the benefits of having a
derby in the calendar. But those were
not much use to the fans trying to get
tickets having walked from over the
road at Twickenham after the
cancellation of the men’s Barbarians
fixture. Those inside the ground were
treated to the match-day announcer
inviting them to find out who were the
true kings of west London, but would
not be treated to a chance to see the
new monarch of this area, MarcusSmith, or his England colleagues Alex
Dombrandt and Joe Marchant.
After Paddy Jackson’s opening
penalty for the visitors, the champions
got on the board when the Irish
defence allowed Danny Care’s chip
through to bounce, and the wing
Oscar Beard did the rest.
The Harlequins captain, Stephan
Lewies, was then penalised twice at
lineouts near his goalline and when
Irish went for a third time, Creevy, the
Argentina hooker, was driven over for
his sixth league try of the season.
Quins had plenty of territory but
could not convert in the danger area.
They had only Beard’s try to show for
eight efforts in the red zone until the
centre Luke Northmore was put away
by an offload from the hooker Jack
Walker, and the Irish defence waved
him through. Tommaso Allan was
taken off with his arm being supported
by medics before the break but QuinsHarlequins’s Danny Care tries to charge down a clearance by Irish’s White
Adam Hathaway
HARLEQUINS
19LONDON IRISH
22GALLAGHER PREMIERSHIP
Covid cases in the Barbarians camp
forced the cancellation of their
match against Samoa at
Twickenham only 90 minutes
before kick-off yesterday.
A statement released by the RFU
revealed that four players and two
members of staff had tested
positive for Covid-19.
The Glasgow Warriors and
Scotland back row Ryan Wilson was
due to captain a side that also
featured the South Africa WorldCup winners Duane Vermeulen,
Malcolm Marx and Steven Kitshoff,
as well as the Australians James
O’Connor and Nic White.
The match was due to serve as a
swansong for the Ireland great and
two-times British & Irish Lions
tourist Rob Kearney, 35, who was on
the bench and set to retire after the
fixture.
The 2.30pm kick-off slot was
filled by Barbarians’ women’s side,
who thrashed South Africa.All fans were encouraged to
attend the women’s match in the
knowledge that a “full, automatic
refund will be made to all ticket
holders”.
The statement read: “Due to six
confirmed Covid-19 cases... the
Professional Game Testing
Oversight Group has advised that
the fixture is unable to proceed.
“We appreciate that this is an
extremely disappointing situation
for the many fans due to attend.”COVID CAUSES BARBARIANS CANCELLATION 90 MINUTES BEFORE KICK-OFF
PWD L F A BPts
Leicester 8 8 0 0 263 136 5 37
Harlequins 8 5 0 3 233 185 8 28
Saracens 7 5 1 1 265 133 5 27
Northampton 8 5 0 3 237 206 5 25
Exeter 9 5 0 4 211 180 4 24
Gloucester 8 4 1 3 212 216 5 23
London Irish 9 2 3 4 239 255 7 21
Newcastle 8 4 1 3 153 162 2 20
Sale 8 3 1 4 181 182 3 17
Wasps 8 3 0 5 198 207 5 17
Bristol 8 3 0 5 163 229 2 14
Worcester 9 2 1 6 162 311 4 14
Bath 8 00 8 142 257 4 4DAVID ROGERS