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Arguably the most mouth-watering tie of the round takes place at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday as Pool 5 leaders London Irish entertain Parisian giants Stade Francais. - 06/12/2013 23:45
London Irish go into the final round of pool action knowing that a quarter-final spot is now beyond them.
The Exiles still had faint hopes of a place in the last eight prior to the beginning of Round 6 but those aspirations are now over for another year after Stade Francais picked up maximum points against Lusitanos. Anything less than a full complement for the Parisian giants would have left the door open for Irish but last season’s beaten finalists produced a strong second-half showing to get the job done in Portugal.
Irish can still finish level on points with Stade at the top of Pool 5 but they can’t make it to the knockout stages because a last-gasp bonus-point try from Antoine Burban in the French capital in Round 4 meant Stade picked up more match points across their head-to-head games.
It would be a surprise if Irish don’t claim a fourth bonus-point win and a fifth victory overall in Italy despite the fact that the motivation of a quarter-final spot has now been taken away from them. Brian Smith’s side won the reverse fixture 60-11 at the Madejski Stadium in October, scoring nine tries in the process. They head into this game on the back of successive wins as well after they beat Worcester Warriors to ease their relegation fears in the Aviva Premiership before putting 13 tries past Lusitanos in a 79-3 success last weekend.
I Cavalieri Prato won’t roll over at the Stadio Enrico Chersoni, though, with the hosts having come agonizingly close to stunning Stade at the same venue in Round 2. They were only undone by a late try three months ago despite having a man sent off in the first half and they have since recorded back-to-back victories over Lusitanos. They almost threw Irish a lifeline last week when they kept Stade to three tries until the 78th minute in France and they will be going all out to gain a major reward for a string of impressive performances this term.
Match facts
London Irish missed just two tackles in their 60-11 defeat of Prato in Round 1.
London Irish have scored more tries (34) and points (244) than any other side in the competition this season.
Cavalieri Prato have won three of 23 games in their Amlin Challenge Cup history, two of which have come in their last three games (against Lusitanos XV).
Irish have won all 11 of their games in the Amlin Challenge Cup against Italian opposition, averaging 48 points per game.
London Irish finished their Amlin Challenge Cup campaign on a high with a seven-try victory over I Cavalieri Prato in Italy. - 18/01/2014 16:22
London Irish finished their Amlin Challenge Cup campaign on a high with a seven-try victory over I Cavalieri Prato in Italy.
The Exiles went into the game knowing that they couldn’t progress to the knockout stages but produced an impressive performance to win 49-0 against a side who have only picked up two victories in Europe this season.
Irish dominated from start to finish and were in front in the first minute with a try from Matt Par, converted by Shane Geraghty.
Prato managed to recover and hold them off for fifteen minutes but the visitor’s class shone through. Two converted tries in the space of three minutes put them 21-0 in front with Declan Danaher and Andrew Fenby grabbing the tries and Geraghty again adding the conversions.
Blair Cowan added the fourth try of the day just before the break, converted by Geraghty, and five minutes after the re-start he got his second. This time Myles Dorrian added the extras.
Irish eased off following their fifth try but there was still time for Eamonn Sheridan to get himself in on the action after a superb run by Dorrian opened up the defence.
Dorrian converted Sheridan’s effort before Alex Lewington wrapped it up in the 78th minute. Again Dorrian made no mistake and added two final points to wrap things up for his side, who finish their European campaign with 41 tries but are denied progression by Stade Francais.
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