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It’s official. London Irish have been relegated from the Aviva Premiership. While their defeat to Newcastle all but sealed their fate a fortnight ago, the ink is now dry after a 32-25 loss to Harlequins at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday. The Exiles will now play in the Greene King IPA Championship for the first time in the professional era, having been in the Premiership since the 1996-97 season.
For Canadian internationals Ciaran Hearn and Jebb Sinclair it will be disappointment, though not all doom and gloom. The standard of play in the Championship has improved considerably over the past few years and many Premiership clubs now have partnership agreements that allow them to loan players to Championship clubs. The forwards are every bit as large and physical with a few international players scattered about the division – Argentina prop Ignacio Sáenz Lancuba, Fiji World Cup hooker Vili Veikoso, and giant Tongan Uili Kolo’ofai among others.
They will travel to new places and find familiar faces often. Matt Evans and Brett Beukeboom are at Cornish Pirates. Aaron Carpenter will be with London Welsh. Jon Phelan and Tyler Hotson are currently on the books for Doncaster, who are in a promotion race. There could well be more Canadian internationals signed next season.
London Irish are also easily capable of bouncing back quickly, as Worcester and Newcastle have done in recent years. A year on the winning end of the majority of results can do wonders for a team’s confidence. Even if Irish lose top internationals like Ben Franks, Blair Cowan, and Sean Maitland, retaining the spine of the team should give them more than enough talent to bank on a Premiership return in 2017.
Newcastle Falcons meanwhile are home and dry, and their four Argentineans players are thankful, though Juan Pablo Socino is the only one certain to be there next season. Socino’s brother Santiago is in the academy, while Gonzalo Tiesi and Belisario Agulla are yet to be confirmed. US Eagles Eric Fry and Todd Clever are certain departures, but US-eligible prop Paddy Ryan has another year on his contract.
Meanwhile the contest for promotion has begun and first blood has been drawn by Doncaster and Bristol in their respective semi-finals. The knock-out stages are played in two-leg home-and-away formats, both semis and finals. The Knights defeated Yorkshire Carnegie 30-17 at Headingley, while Bristol thumped Bedford 45-16 at Goldington Road. Similar performances next weekend should see the two fighting it out for a chance at the big time.
