RugbyRebels

London Irish: 15 James Marshall, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Tom Fowlie, 12 Luke McLean, 11 Alex Lewington, 10 Theo Brophy Clews, 9 Piet van Zyl, 1 Ben Franks, 2 David Paice, 3 Ollie Hoskins, 4 Franco van der Merwe (c), 5 Teofilo Paulo, 6 Arno Botha, 7 Max Northcote-Green, 8 Ofisa Treviranus

Replacements: 16 Saia Fainga’a, 17 Harry Elrington, 18 Petrus du Plessis, 19 Sebastian De Chaves, 20 Blair Cowan, 21 Scott Steele, 22 Tommy Bell, 23 Aseli Tikoirotuma


Team: 15.Mike Haley; 14.Paolo Odogwu, 13.Will Addison, 12.Luke James, 11.Josh Charnley; 10.Sam James, 9.Faf De Klerk; 1.Ross Harrison, 2.Rob Webber, 3.WillGriff John, 4.Bryn Evans, 5.Josh Beaumont, 6.Jono Ross (capt.), 7.Ben Curry, 8.Josh Strauss.

Replacements: 16.Marc Jones, 17.James Flynn, 18.Halani Aulika, 19.George Nott, 20.TJ Ioane, 21.Cameron Nield, 22.Will Cliff, 23.Mark Jennings.

Paolo Odogwu coming back from absolutely nowhere. That's startling. And Charnley being given a sympathy run-out against the bottom team. Not sure if Sale are taking this seriously enough; could be a banana skin for them.

Puja

Must win game for Irish. They would have been targeting this one for a few weeks now.

Odogwu was out on loan I thought. Probably brought back due to absence of several wingers.

Had forgotten they had McGuigan off and Drunkie Dennie only back on Thursday. Is Yarde injured?

Even so, they could have put Jennings in the centre and Addison on the wing if they wanted to.

Puja

Also surprising they’ve gone for Luke James over Jennings too.

Good to see Beaumont back though.

McLean over Williams. Fark me.

Jennings first game back after an injury

Tigger wrote:Jennings first game back after an injury

Ah, that makes sense; thanks. Do you know if Yarde's broken or just out of favour?

Puja

We have been wondering the same thing....

Good win for Sale but made hard work of it...wonder about the future of London Irish....don’t know what the official attendance was but the crowd looked very small

Tigger wrote:We have been wondering the same thing....

Good win for Sale but made hard work of it...wonder about the future of London Irish....don’t know what the official attendance was but the crowd looked very small

I believe they have an agreement with Brentford FC to share their Stadium when finished. I think they’re aiming for the 19/20 season for that. Hopefully, a stadium in London closer to their spiritual home and with a smaller capacity will help. I used to go to the Mad Stadium quite a lot when my brother lived nearby. Utterly soulless even when they had a decent, for them, crowd. I used to laugh when it won Prem stadium of the year. Yes, the toilets were nice but there was no atmosphere.

How did Arno Botha do?

He looked good in the AW Cup and seems to have bagged a decent haul in the Fantasy Rugby which, given that it’s based on Opta stats, suggests he had another good outing.