52 Monday May 2 2022 | the times
SportGallagher Premiership
5
It was a weekend where many records
fell in the Gallagher Premiership —
from Chris Ashton taking the try-
scoring crown, to Danny Care’s sixth
yellow card of the season.
But no history-book busters were
more unlikely than London Irish
etching their own quirky place in the
log; securing a ludicrous fifth draw of
the season, the highest-scoring one in
league history, in practically the crazi-
est manner possible.
The facts are that 59 minutes in,
Wasps had their fifth try, from Zach
Kibirige, after previous scores from
Gabriel Oghre, Charlie Atkinson and
two from Francois Hougaard, and with
Jimmy Gopperth’s fourth conversion
they led by 25 points.
Dan Robson pulled Wasps’ strings to
perfection and their defence was mean
with former head coach Shaun
Edwards happily watching on.
At that point Wasps stood sixth in the
league, and had flickering hopes of
making the top four.
Josh Bassett had scorched through
and drawn Tom Parton to feed his
winger, Kibirige, and after that the
exiles’ director of rugby Declan Kidney
decided to bring on 19-year-old Henry
Arundell for the beaten full back.
With Arundell on, everything
changed. Irish sent the Brentford
Community Stadium potty by scoring
four tries in 15 minutes — adding to
Kyle Rowe and Tom Pearson’s first-half
efforts — to nick the draw. Arundell
was at the heart of it all.
There is always one try in these mad
comebacks that goes fairly unnoticed,
when the job still seems impossible.
That came when Pearson scored his
second of the day on the right.
The second of four started pulses
racing. Arundell had the ball in mid-
field, spied a gap behind the Wasps
defence, chipped, regathered and ran in
to score. No wonder England are inter-
Scorers: London Irish: Tries Rowe (17), Parton
(24), Pearson (67), Arundell (72), Hassell-
Collins (78), penalty try (80). Cons Jackson 5.
Wasps: Tries Oghre (14), Hougaard 2 (29, 46),
Atkinson (34), Kibirige (58) Cons J Gopperth 3
Pens J Gopperth 2, J Umaga.
London Irish T Parton (H Arundell 61);
K Rowe (W Joseph 61), C Rona, B van
Rensburg, O Hassell-Collins; P Jackson,
N Phipps (B White 50); W Goodrick-Clarke
(F Gigena 64), A Creevy (M Cornish 51), O
Hoskins (C Parker 65), G Nott (S Mafi 56), R
Simmons, M Rogerson, T Pearson, S O’Brien
(A Tuisue 51).
Wasps Z Kibirige (J Umaga 78); F Hougaard,
M Fekitoa, J Gopperth (P Odogwu 64), J
Bassett; C Atkinson, D Robson (W Porter 63);
T West (B Harris 4), G Oghre (D Frost 64),
B Alo (E Millar-Mills 56), J Launchbury,
E Stooke (J Gaskell 68), B Shields, J Willis,
T Willis (T Young 61).
Referee: C Maxwell-Keys.
Attendance: 12,039Chris Ashton has targeted a century of
Premiership tries after his hat-trick in
the 56-26 win over Bristol took him to a
record 95 and guaranteed Leicester
Tigers a home play-off semi-final.
Ashton, who joined Leicester in
February, said the three months he
spent without a club after leaving
Worcester left him wondering if he
would ever move ahead of the former
Leicester and Wasps wing Tom
Varndell, who finished his career with
- However, a 24-minute hat-trick on
Saturday, the quickest by a Leicester
player in the league, has taken him to
within touching distance of three
figures.
When asked if he could bring up a
century, the former England wing said:
“Without doubt. When you have been
playing as long as I have and been in dif-
ferent teams, I don’t lack motivation. I
am happy to be out there scoring and
back in front of a crowd. I will chase
anything.
“My mum said to me the other day it
[scoring tries] is the only thing that
makes me genuinely look happy. I am
Ashton sets sights on historic century
glad to get it [the record] out of the way.
I had three months at home thinking
that was it so I am very grateful to get
the opportunity again. When Steve
[Borthwick, the Leicester head coach]
rang I said I would be there tomorrow
and it was a very easy decision for me. I
am grateful to him for giving me the
opportunity.”
Having helped dismantle Bristol,
who are a shadow of the team that
finished top of the league last season
before falling in the semi-finals, Ashton
now turns his attention to the looming
Heineken Champions Cup quarter-
final at home to Leinster on Saturday.
Borthwick knows Leinster have
enjoyed a very different build-up to the
quarter-final. A below-strength side
were sent to South Africa for the United
Rugby Championship games, and key
players continued training in Ireland.
He said: “We will need to be better than
that [against Leinster]. I am excited to
take on a team with such an incredible
record in Europe. They have such amaz-
ing resources to send a team on tour to
South Africa and the rest of the squad
remaining at home. We will do whatever
we can to achieve something special.”Chris Jones Wing’s record
Chris AshtonTom VarndellMark CuetoChristian WadeDanny Care9592908279Games Tries
SaracensNorthamptonSale SharksLeicester TigersHarlequinsWorcester80 4751 3314 6767241Most Premiership triesWho he scored them forJ
ames Grayson must have been
the weekend’s least popular
Premiership player. His late
and long-range penalty, which
won the game for
Northampton Saints against
Harlequins, was a dagger to the heart
of four Premiership teams with
varying hopes of making the top four.
While Harlequins held the lead,
Northampton’s points tally stood at- Had it remained so, Gloucester
would have overtaken them the next
day with their 64-0 shaming of Bath.
The fourth and final play-off place
would have been in their hands. The
48-metre Grayson strike changed all
Gloucester won’t find
that. On Friday afternoon, there were
nine clubs in with what ranged from a
shout to a faint whisper. When that
booming kick bisected the posts, the
numbers dropped. By my
computations, the race for the title
has been slashed down to five.
Yesterday’s anticipated thriller
between London Irish and Wasps lost
much of its sheen. The exciting
London Irish team were the first to
disappear from the list of possibles.
With two bonus-point wins, they
could only draw level with Chris
Boyd’s Saints on 68 points. Number of
games won is the next criterion; Irish
fell at the hurdle.
I drew a line through a Wasps team
finishing the season in style; even
before a ball was kicked in anger at
Brentford. As it is, yesterday’s draw
leaves Wasps no more than a talking-
point for next season.
The same can be said for Sale
Sharks, who with 61 points no longer
have a realistic chance. The biggerStuart Barnes
0
21
London Irish
Wasps
42
42
Arundell lights the fuse for
ested in the Harrow schoolboy, who
qualifies for Wales, Scotland and
Cyprus. Anyone close to Eddie Jones,
who was sitting in the crowd after his
Japanese jaunt with Suntory Sungoli-
ath, may have heard the England head
coach purring.
Next came the try that gave Irish real
hope. With two minutes left Albert
Tuisue catapulted the hooker
Dan Frost back with an enor-
mous carry, before the
exiles went left. Arundell
found Ollie Hassell-
Collins and he raced in.
Jackson’s conversion
took them to 39-35
back; the home crowd
now expectant of
another crazy finish.
That inflating balloon
was then punctured, though,
as Jack Willis won what felt like a
vital turnover with a minute and 20 sec-
onds left on the clock. Jacob Umaga
kicked the penalty, leaving 30 seconds
to spare.
Wasps even won the kick-off, but in
their desperation almost every London
Irish player successfully counter-
rucked to take the ball back in remark-
able fashion. A penalty came. Irish
quick-tapped — their brains turning to
mush — but fortunately won another
as Wasps had not retreated ten metres.
The replacement scrum half Ben
White prevented another silly decision
being made and gave the ball to Jackson
who thumped it to within five metres of
the tryline with time up.
London Irish’s maul rapidly sped
towards the line, with Tuisue thinking
he had grounded it. The referee Craig
Maxwell-Keys was not sure, so checked
with the TMO.
When he did he saw Joe Launchbury
dragging the whole thing down, so sent
him to the sin-bin and awarded the
penalty try.
It was a draw that felt like the most
shattering defeat for Wasps. They just
stood, almost motionless, on the pitch,
wondering how on earth that had hap-
pened.
Their head coach, Lee Blackett,
looked emotional as he tried to sum it
up. “It’s a pretty difficult one — it feels
like a big loss,” said the man who had
guided Wasps to their own comeback
here from 33-10 down to win 39-36 lastJune. “The whole energy lifted and you
could feel the whole place going against
us, and we just couldn’t stop it.
“You need to see that across the line.
I’m gutted it comes down to a sloppy
ten minutes.”
Kidney is never one to be too animat-
ed in defeat or victory, but having
drawn so dramatically he was quietly
delighted.
“On the up side we have the
one thing you can’t coach,
that comes from within
the players, they fight to
the finish,” he said.
And on Arundell —
who overcame a bad
hamstring injury two
years ago — he con-
firmed that England had
inquired about the teenager.
“There is definitely interest,”
Kidney added.
“When players do that, like the try he
scored in the under-20s game against
France, they are headline grabbers but
Henry is the first to know there are
parts of his game he needs to work
on.
“What you don’t want him to do is get
one or two caps — isn’t it better if he
gets in there as the full package?
“He has carried himself very well so
far and if he continues to do that I have
no doubt those type of doors will open.”
Wasps ended the day in ninth place,
their play-off hopes quickly dipping
over the horizon as the sun shone for
the fighting exiles once more.Will Kelleher
Deputy Rugby
Correspondent
7
Draws in the Premiership
so far this season —
there were eight in
the previous three
seasons combined1