Kidney: 'I won't have a bad word said against the players'
London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney was keen to focus on the positives despite seeing his side beaten 20-6 by Worcester after having a player sent off for the second away Gallagher Premiership match in succession.
Worcester fly-half Duncan Weir, who scored 13 of his side’s points, was on the receiving end of a head-high tackle from Motu Matu’u, which saw the hooker red-carded after only 34 minutes and left Irish to play the whole of the second half a man short.
Stephen Myler kicked two penalties for Irish but Worcester triumphed thanks to a try, conversion and two penalties from Weir, with replacement Jono Lance also on the scoresheet with a try and conversion.
Kidney said: “I saw the incident on the big screen and will need to look at it again and due process will take place afterwards.
“We put in a massive effort on either side of half-time and I won’t have a bad word said against the players because there was fantastic commitment from them as obviously losing players makes it extremely difficult.
“I think we could have had a penalty try at the end when their full-back was yellow-carded, but then again they had a try disallowed by the TMO in the early stages.”
Worcester director of rugby Alan Solomons accepted his side were not at their best but was content with a valuable four league points.
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“It was very important that we won and it was also important that we denied them a bonus point,” he said.
“However, our error count was far too high, so we couldn’t build any pressure and it can’t have been a pretty game to watch.
Ackerman has a suggestion for Wales and their new wunderkind
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“On balance, we deserved to win a very physical game of rugby, but sometimes things don’t work out and it’s hard to explain why.
“To be a top-six side, we need to be better than that, but against Sale and Exeter we showed we could be. But it’s a very strong competition and there are no easy games in it.”
Next up for Worcester is a trip to Saracens next weekend.
“We need to be a hell of a lot better than we showed today as they are the best team in Europe,” added Solomons.
RugbyPass had the pleasure of interviewing Ireland and Lions star David Wallace.
Comments on RugbyPass
Kok will become a fan favourite
1 Go to commentsI am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to comments