A reintroduction to London Irish, Pt 2: Backs

Now we've had a little look at the forards, it's time to check out the London Irish pretty boys, first up we have the scrum halves:
Brendan McKibbin, Ben Meehan, Scott Steele

Ask any three London Irish fans which scrum half should start and be on the bench and you'll get three different answers. Personally I believe that McKibbin will be the main scrum half at the start of the season with Meehan taking over later on. Steele will be rotated in as necessary. Meehan seems to have an extremely blunt personality, having described how Australian players are scrambling to get contracts abroad to escape the uncertainty and stating his pitch for the England 9 shirt in an interview before he'd even touched down in the UK. However in pre-season he was very, very impressive and his long darts to the likes of Nalaga, Treviranus, Lewington and Cokanasiga could cause teams some sizeable issues.

Fly Half:
James Marshall, Theo Brophy-Clews

Fly Half is almost the opposite of scrum half for us, in that every single London Irish fan would back Marshall to start. It's quite striking that last year he always seemed to be a few seconds ahead of everyone else in the game, simple an exceptional player at FH and he'll probably see his profile raised quite significantly by the end of the season. Theo Brophy-Clews, or TBC for short seems to have been around for a while, captaining England in a game in the world championships this summer as well as down the age group, unfortunately however he spent most of the last season out injured and hence if Marshall is injured Tommy Bell will probably be the one to provide cover (see Full Backs).

Centres:

Aseli Tikoirotuma (Fiji), Johnny Williams, Fergus Mulchrone, Ciaran Hearn (Canada), Luke McLean (Italy)

Tikoirotuma is a hard hitting (sometimes a bit too hard for the ref's liking...) fast Fijian that joined us a few years ago from Harlequins, and has been a fan favourite ever since, but it seems like Hearn has overtaken him for the starting outside centre spot. Johnny Williams enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2015-16 with hard lines and elusive running providing a tricky prospect for other premiership defenders, unfortunately since his debut he's been used as a battering ram, resulting in his fair share of injuries. When he recovers from his current one the academy coaches will be hoping that he solidifies his role in the team as a starter. Mr McLean's hiring was based on Conor O'Shea's recommendation, but from what I've seen in pre-season I can't see what justified that recommendation. Overall, without wishing to be harsh we're a bit lightweight and inexperienced in the centres so I suspect Naplioni Nalaga will be moved into 13 fairly swiftly (as indeed he was in the last friendly).

Wings:

Napolioni Nalaga (Fiji), Alex Lewington, Joe Cokanasiga, Topsy Ojo, Ben Ransom, Tom Fowlie

First up, we need to talk about Joe Cokanasiga. He's an absolute monster in attack (enough so that he got called up to Argentina without playing in the Prem (but unfortunately picked up an injury on tour)) and has potential to be a world beater, however without wishing to beat around the bush, his defence is poor. As far as I can figure out it is not due to any inherent weakness but rather because he is only 19 years old. He'll get eased into fixtures this year and next year should take over the starter jersey. Napolioni Nalaga is the standout signing of our summer. His career stats so far read as 125 Top 14 and European Champions cup tries from 189 games, which you can't really argue with. ALth

ough he came to us significantly overweight he's now trimmed down and has been putting in some big hits in pre-season, as well as contributing with tries. Third in London Irish's pretty impressive stable of wingers is Alex Lewington, if he was in a top 6 side he'd be an England winger, he has great defensive positioning with pace to spare and defenders can't seem to lay a hand on him. His contract runs out in the summer and his will probably move on and leave then (unless he gets injured at contract renewal time... again), when we got relegated apparently over 10 clubs from the Prem & Top 14 contacted London Irish enquiring about a release clause. It feels harsh to leave a club legend like Topsy until fourth but his age is really catching up with him. He won't get run out too often and will transition into a coaching role at the end of the season. Ben Ransom and Tom Fowlie are both sharp attacking players but questions remain over their defensive capabilities.

Full Back:

Tommy Bell, Greig Tonks (Scotland)

Tommy Bell is unambiguously our first choice full back, not because of his attack or defence but because of his metronomic boot. Given that in 2015/16 if we had kicked as well as Bell kicked last season then we would not have been relegated I would be shocked if Bell does not play every game that he's able to. However Tonks is another player rediscovering his mojo and may manage to displace Bell if he keeps improving.

SO there you go, that's the complete lowdown on the London Irish squad, the coaches haven't hidden the fact that the plan this year is to dominate in the forwards and score a lot of rolling mauls, with Nalaga, Cokanasiga or Tikoirotuma occasionally running over defenders to touch down.

A reintroduction to London Irish, Pt.1: Forwards

Since being relegated from the Premiership for the first ever time in the 2015/16 season London Irish has undergone nothing less than a root and branch overhaul, despite the apparent lack in turnover of players. The main victim of the 're-organisation' was Tom Coventry, who had joined at the start of the season fresh from a marginally above average spell as the Chief's assistant coach. Although admittedly an injury crisis that sidelined big Ben Franks, skipper George Skivington, 1st choice kicker and fly half Chris Noakes, Alex Lewington and six other first team players at one point did not help him, ultimately he developed some 'family issues' the day after London Irish were officially relegated.


The replacements came in the form of London Irish old boys Nick Kennedy, George Skivington, and Brendan Venter alongside incumbent academy coaches Declan Danaher and Paul Hodgson, who were fresh from winning the U18 academy competition. Since they've come in there has been a real focus on rebuilding the culture of the club that had been destroyed by an over-reliance on journeymen after the entire academy relocated to Bath. Internally hopes are high, with the good Dr Venter predicting a 10th place finish this season followed by a 4th place finish the season after, needless to say however two 11th places would satisfy most of their fans.

The Players (new signings this offseason):

Props:
Ben Franks (NZ), Petrus du Plessis, Gordon Reid (Scotland), Manasa Saulo (Fiji), Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, Harry Elrington, Richard Palframan, Ollie Hoskins, Tom Smallbone, Lovejoy Chawatama

The front row is certainly an area where London Irish doesn't suffer for lack of quality and depth. Excluding his red card for retaliating to ridiculously thuggish behaviour in the play-off final last year he has been a model professional, as well as being an informal part-time coach to the younger players. His workrate is still top notch and despite our depth I would expect him to play 60 minutes plus each week. Complimenting Franks we have the less decorated but no less skillful Petrus du Plessis, who hopefully still has a few seasons left in him. Although we will be running a strong rotation policy throughout the season due to the age profile of our props it is likely that Gordon Reid, Manasa Saulo and Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi will be the only other props to get into the 23. The 27 times over Scotland Internation Reid needs no introduction, but despite having 6 more caps I suspect that Saulo is less well known He comes to us from Timasora Saracens via a brief stint in Toulon where he seemed an irregular fixture in the team. Lastly Danny HA joined us from Saints just after we were relegated in 2016 and put in a number of strong performances, including a try in the play off final. Hobbs-Awoyemi has had a bright junior career winning both the 2013 and 2014 Junior World Cups, at just 23 he is a very bright prospect for the future.

Hookers:
David Paice (Eng), Saia Fainga'a (Aus), Darren Dawidiuk, Dave Porecki, Todd Gleave.

Hooker is an interesting position for 'Irish, with three very competent players that will be able to do a job, but who are at no risk of setting the world on fire. Paice is likely going to be named the club captain this season and seems to have trimmed up in the off season, I would be surprised if he was not the main hooker this season. Mr Fainga'a seems to be an odd signing because it is not clear that he is a substantial upgrade on Paice, nor is he a youth option at 30 and he has been pursued by Irish since the middle of the Coventry era. Maybe they see something that I don't. We managed to land Dawiduk after Gloucester told him that he was leaving in the middle of the the awards dinner and from what I've heard he's a very decent squad player. Porecki & Gleave will be solely making appearances in the A-league.

Second Row:
Seb de Chaves, Franco van der Merwe, Josh McNally, Teofilo Paulo (Fiji), Will Lloyd.

Seb de Chaves is another player that joined us after we got relegated, having never nailed down a starting spot at Leicester, last year he was a cornerstone of the team, and should continue being so this year. van der Merwe, although not officially announced, will have his paperwork completed by the double header and he has already made a very positive impression on the fans in the pre-season games, including 3 lineout steals against Ealing. He joins us because of a bit of a cash issue at Cardiff that forced them to try and offload him. McNally and Paulo are likely to be on bench rotation throughout the season, and both look like they can cut it at Premiership level.

Back Row:
Ofisa Treviranus (Samoa), Blair Cowan (Scotland), Mike Coman, Lasha Lomidze (Georgia), Conor Gilsenan, Jake Schatz, Max Northcote-Green.

In the 2016-17 season Irish looked a completely different side when Treviranus was playing compared to when he was out injured. When he was playing our pack had a lot more ballast and the backs had front foot ball to work off, unfortunately he was injured for most of the season. One of the goals of recruitment this season seems to have been to fix that vulnerability. The answer has come in the form of Lomidze, a 6ft 5, 100 and a chunk kilogramme number 8. He's a big muscular lump that can run, I mean what else do you want from an 8? Cowan seems to have rediscovered his mojo in the past season putting in a number of man of the match performances. Former Edinburgh captain Coman will likely partner him on the other side of the scrum with Gilly (reportedly seen by leadership as a future captain) alongside Schatz and Northcote-Green providing injury backup.