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| 25 November 2003, 2:37 pm |
| Wanderers Lose At Sunbury |
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Wanderers welcomed several first-team players to their side, in the return friendly against London Irish at Sunbury last night, including a run-out for Mark Robinson after completing his two-week suspension.
The match looked promising for Wanderers as early pressure saw them camped in the Irish half for most of the first ten minutes. Set piece play was working well with Matt Miles finding his jumpers in the lineout allowing the Kiwi Robinson to set up the back-line.
The first score came in the 19th minute with a London Irish penalty by Thrower. This was followed in the 23rd with the Exiles' hooker breaking free from a penalty after a Wanderers' knock-on.
Wanderers looked keen to apply pressure from the restart, which was rewarded as captain Jon Phillips took a clean catch in the lineout enabling winger Paul Diggin to run 40 metres for a try. This was converted by Russell.
The Wanderers' line-up changed with a triple replacement as Miles, Diggin and Robinson took to the bench before half time. In the midst of this Irish added another Thrower penalty, leaving the score at 7-11 at the end of the first half.
London Irish started the second half as they completed the first with the aim of a score, coming from flanker Haslett. A frustrating ten minutes followed with the visitors' mistakes costing them dear. This was highlighted in the 20th and 34th minutes with the Exiles' winger Topsy Ojo intercepting two passes to run in under the posts from 30 metres. Between this came another Irish try, this time by Thorpe.
Wanderers' resurgence of spirit unfortunately came too late to make a difference. They failed to score again leaving the final score at Wanderers 7 London Irish 41.
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