London Irish v Wasps, 18/03/07

WHAT A MATCH! To start with, there was a brilliant St Patrick's Weekend atmosphere in the Madejski Stadium, with the gate numbers at a record-breaking high of just over 22,000. The tannoy was blasting out the inevitable Irish folk songs such as Molly Malone and The Fields of Athenrye - should it be Peckham Rye for the London-Irish version? ;-)
The team came on to thunderous applause, I was disappointed Mike Catt wasn't there, but he'd been playing at international level that weekend. Irish started off playing really well, but missed a few conversions that should have been straightforward. By half time they were 10-0 up.
In the second half Wasps seemed like a different team, swarming round the Irish players with far greater energy and purpose. They were soon level on 10-10, then just ahead 10-13, but then Irish pulled themselves together to get level at 13-13. With 10 minutes to go the Argentinian player with the long hair and difficult name made a superb run down the pitch to get over the try line, but got carried away with his success and failed to touch down! What a wally! Luckily Riki Flutey saved the day for the Exiles with a goal, giving them a 16-13 win.
Had such a good time at the match, am definitely a London Irish fan now and shall go again sometime!