Booth: 'It feels like a bit of a loss'
Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:38
London Irish claimed top spot in the Guinness Premiership after their 18-13 victory over Bristol today but head coach Toby Booth admitted it was a game they should have lost.
Bristol, rock-bottom of the league with only one win this season, came within a whisker of making it two and drawing level with relegation rivals Newcastle. They led 13-11 after centre Luke Eves went over for a try, having trailed 11-0 from two Peter Hewat penalties and a Sailosi Tagicakibau touchdown. But an interception by former England fly-half Shane Geraghty on halfway sealed the Irish win and their top spot.
Booth, though, said: "It feels like a bit of a loss, to be honest. All credit to Bristol, they were very good.
"In the second half, every time we got to the halfway line, we gave the ball back. We certainly didn't make life easy for ourselves and we probably needed to be more clinical in the first half. Then the whole thing would have been a different game.
"Rugby is a simple game. If you control the ball, it is simple. You push the balls into the corner and the people who do that better and control the game are often the ones that come out on top. They scored first straight after half-time and we said the first score then would be vital and, as a result, we let them in the game. Fair play to them, they are very committed. But I do want our boys to kick on and achieve the best they can."
It is the first time that London Irish have headed the Premiership since October 1999, a time when Booth was still working on his education.
"I was just finishing a Masters [degree] at St Mary's University. I studied physiology, which has been a lot of use to me!"
Richard Hill, meanwhile, agreed that his club should have won but he is happy to have taken a losing bonus point off the Exiles and thinks Bristol are "getting better".
Head coach Hill said: "Normally, I would say the better team won but, on this occasion, we deserved to win that and I feel very sorry for the players, they put a lot of effort into that second half, particularly. They had it well under control and the only time that Irish actually got the ball is when we gave it to them on a plate. It happens but it is our own fault.
"We are bitterly disappointed and sometimes you wonder what you have got to do to win a game. Lady Luck is probably not on our side at the moment but we are partly responsible for that ourselves. We will keep battling away and, hopefully, we will get those little narrow wins we need.
"At 11-0, you could almost sense that Irish thought that was not enough. At half-time, all the players thought it was achievable to peg back that lead. The crowd got behind us and, really, there was only one team in it then. And we had the game under control until that interception try which was a bit cruel when you see a team which are top of the league now and we dominated them for 40 minutes."
With thanks to www.guinnesspremiership.com
