London Irish back in the Premiership

There was no shock result on Wednesday evening as London Irish achieved their goal of promotion to the Aviva Premiership with an emphatic win over Yorkshire Carnegie at the Madejski Stadium. An opening score by Canadian international Ciaran Hearn put Irish on track and while Carnegie fired back stayed within two points at the half, the Exiles pulled away in the end to come away 55-48 winners on the evening and 84-67 on aggregate. They now leave behind the Greene King IPA Championship after only one season and make an immediate return to the Premiership, having suffered the indignation of relegation just one year ago.

Moving up with the club will be Hearn and second row Jebb Sinclair, the Atlantic Canadians both set to take part in the June test series fast approaching. Sinclair has one year left on his contract while Hearn’s runs through to the 2019 World Cup. Both players will take great pride after playing significant roles for the club during the season and in the final match on Wednesday.

Irish will now look to bolster their squad ahead of the new season, a difficult task given their inability to guarantee Premiership rugby until today and a significant head start afforded to the 11 clubs already confirmed. Among those rumored to be joining the club next season but not yet confirmed are three Australian Super Rugby players in former Wallaby hooker Saia Fainga’a, eightman Jake Schatz, and scrumhalf Ben Meehan.

Georgian loose forward Lasha Lomidze is expected to be announced as a new signing in the coming days, as well as Scotland loosehead prop Gordon Reid and Saracens tighthead Petrus du Plessis. Fijian World Cup tighthead Manasa Saulo is also said to be on the move to the club from French powerhouse Toulon.

 

SCORING

LONDON IRISH 55
Tries – C. Hearn, B. McKibbin 2, F. Mulchrone, A. Lewington 2
Cons – T. Bell 5
Pens – T. Bell 5
Yellow cards – M. Coman (51′)
Red cards – B. Franks (73′)

YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE 48
Tries – S. Stegmann 2, M. Mayhew, B West, Penalty try, S. Faletau
Cons – J. Ford 5
Pens – J. Ford 3
Red cards – C. Beech (73′)

 

TEAMS

LONDON IRISH
1 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, 2 David Paice (capt.), 3 Ben Franks, 4 Sebastian de Chaves, 5 Jebb Sinclair, 6 Mike Coman, 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Ofisa Treviranus, 9 Brendan McKibbin, 10 James Marshall, 11 Topsy Ojo, 12 Fergus Mulchrone, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 14 Alex Lewington, 15 Tommy Bell

Replacements: 16 David Porecki, 17 Tom Court, 18 Oli Hoskins, 19 George Robson, 20 Luke Narraway, 21 Scott Steele, 22 Greig Tonks

YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE
1 Charlie Beech, 2 Mike Mayhew, 3 Michael Cusack, 4 Matt Smith, 5 Mike Myerscough, 6 Ollie Stedman, 7 Richard Mayhew, 8 Ryan Burrows (capt.), 9 Alex Davies, 10 Joe Ford, 11 Seg Stegmann, 12 Tom Casson, 13 Peter Lucock, 14 Jonah Holmes, 15 Chris Elder

Replacements: 16 Ross Graham, 17 Lewis Boyce, 18 Sione Faletau, 19 Ben West, 20 Richard Beck, 21 Max Green, 22 Max Wright

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Matthew Carley
Assistants: Ian Tempest & Jack Makepeace
TMO: David Sainsbury