Booth 'proud' despite Cup exit
Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:00
The brainstrust: London Irish bosses Mike Catt and Toby Booth in discussion
London Irish coach Toby Booth made it clear that he "wasn't feeling suicidal" at the end of his side's 11-11 draw with Leinster, but he had every right to feel that way.
In a stunning second half he saw his side score the try they needed to match Northampton Saints, but then miss the conversion that would have given them the lead.
Then Chris Malone buried his demons by kicking the 76th minute penalty that finally put the home side ahead, and take a giant stride forward in their quest to overtake Saints in the race for the final qualifying place in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.
But no sooner had the 37,323 Twickenham crowd saluted Malone's kick, and the prospect of a place in the last eight, than they had to applaud his opposite number Johnny Sexton's 35 metre drop goal a minute later that levelled the scores.
There was just time for a bit more drama with Malone twice trying to regain the glory with long range drop goal attempts, but both flew wide and the champions hung on to clinch a home quarter-fianl.
Then came the news from France that the Scarlets had beaten Brive 20-17, and Booth was left to deal with the reality of not only missing out on a place in the last eight of the Heineken Cup, but also in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
"My first emotion is that I'm very proud of what my team has achieved against Leinster. To be undefeated against the reigning Heineken Cup champions, and to have beaten them in their own back yard, tells me we can compete at the top table of rugby in Europe," said Booth.
"That's why I'm not feeling suicidal. It speaks volumes about the quality and character of this group of players that we can compete at this level. What we need to find now is the mental resilience to win games of this calibre. "It really was pressure stuff out there and we have to learn to cope with that. But we didn't fail to make the quarter-finals because of today.
"We had two poor performances earlier in the Pool against the Scarlets and that's what did for us." Booth said he wouldn't be apportioning any blame to outside half Chris Malone for missing two crucial penalties, hitting the upright with his conversion and failing to hit the mark with those two late drop shots.
"Coming into this game Chris had landed 10 out of 10 kicks at goal. He is normally an 85% goalkicker, but it just wasn't his day," added Booth. "He is disappointed with those misses, but it was his tactical and line kicking that allowed us to put pressure on Leinster and stay in the game."
ERC
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