Win at ‘magnificent’ new home delights Declan Kidney

Adam Kyriacou
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London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney was full of praise for the club’s new home after seeing his team win their first game there with a 22-9 success over a disappointing Leicester side.

After 20 years based in Reading, Irish moved back to their heartland of south-west London to take up residence at the Brentford Community Stadium, which they share with Brentford F.C.

Magnificent club stadium

Kidney said after the Premiership success: “It was a massive occasion and to win after all the effort that has gone on behind the scenes was icing on the cake.

“It’s a magnificent club stadium where the supporters are very close to the pitch and we look forward to a crowd coming in next Sunday against Sale.

“But it’s important that we give them something on the field to shout about so they get behind us.”

Fly-half Paddy Jackson was London Irish’s hero by converting Curtis Rona’s try and adding five penalties for a match tally of 17 points.

Disjointed Leicester could only manage three penalties, two from Argentinian Joaquin Diaz Bonilla and one from Zack Henry.

Kidney continued: “Paddy missed a couple out there but he doesn’t get carried away whether he succeeds or fails with his kicks, so we are very lucky to have him.

“We were a whole lot better than we were at Worcester last week but we had a rough period in the third quarter. We let them back into it as we compounded error after error, which put us under pressure.

“Our scrum also struggled during that period so we will have to look at that area.”

Leicester head coach Steve Borthwick was frustrated with his side’s performance even though they improved in the second half after he had made a couple of changes at half-time.

Borthwick said: “We had good field position in the third quarter but we failed to take our opportunities. They built up pressure in the final quarter and the scoreboard ran away from us.

“There are lessons to be learnt as we didn’t capitalise when we had chances.

“We made tactical changes at half-time as I wanted to lift the side and change the way we were playing.”

 

Leicester Tigers