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New Season, New Start

With a new season the slate is wiped clean and this season Irish have another attempt at Premiership survival, now we are a few games into the season proper I thought now was a good time to review on progress made so far. Irish have been in this position a couple of times now and personally I would argue the relegation to the Championship is not the end of the world albeit not ideal and causes a mass of players to leave. However on this attempt there was certainly a new air of optimism about the club pre-season I would imagine mostly due to the number of signings, the coaching set up but also the prospect of the Rugby World Cup and the ability to capitalise on those who may have lost significant chunks of their squad to the various teams in Japan. The hope I would suggest was somewhat short lived following the only real pre-season friendly (would still like some more at Hazelwood) against Munster who brought Irish down to reality, a good solid first half performance was overshadowe
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Coventry v London Irish pictures

A selection of pictures from today's game, evidently I'm no photographer but I tried!
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Three Games In

So now we are three games in I thought it was a good time to share my views on the season so far. First I suppose I should start with the obvious, three wins from three is a great start and only one point dropped against Ealing I'm happy with. Whilst we may not be first partly due to not playing Jersey and partly cause of Cornwall's great form which as of yet I'm not too worried about due to the sides they have played I would say we have a solid foundation for the season to progress. I also should comment on the new signings who are making a great impact, Bryce Campbell in particular I think has added the punch in the centres we have needed especially when Mulchrone is not playing. Myler has also been clinical with the boot gaining us valuable points where we in previous seasons may not have been so hot on (albeit this weekend he was a bit off). Also I'm not a forward but it seems the pack especially this week in the first half dominated gaining easy penalty's fo
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Fixture List

So the fixture list god's have acted and we finally have next season's dates to sort out our away trips...well kind of. I can imagine that like most others I was somewhat surprised that the Jersey fixture has not been confirmed due to circumstances out of the club's control. I hear this is because of a number of events going on in Jersey causing hotel and plane issues. Whilst I know I'm not the only one disappointed I must say that last season I couldn't afford to go to Jersey due to cost so I would rather it be at a time when there's less demand and costs would be much better so I have a chance! Also the Ealing fixtures are timed almost perfectly, initially I was not keen on the away trip being the first game of the season but if we can get out of the blocks quickly it might send an early statement of intent and possibly calm the thoughts of Ealing causing us allot of trouble (although I'm sure they will). If the season does go Ealing's way then we
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My Thoughts on the next seasons ST

So a new season is approaching and obviously the next seasons season tickets need to be sold, with Irish now back in the Championship and the West Stand being the only option available a different pricing structure is required and we have of course a new set of changes to the ST offering. A couple of key headlines for next season: No Unreserved seating Children are no longer free Goodbye to AFES discount Introduction of Patrons membership Increase in prices Personally for me whilst I am a bit gutted the unreserved section is going and I have used it previously I'm not overly fussed by this disappearing, over recent seasons it has been watered down to the extent where it almost became irrelevant because people always had their favorite spots and other than sitting in the East Stand did me as a buyer really deserve a reduced ticket price?! That said if Irish were to get promoted after the coming season given the lower attendances of late I don't see any harm in the ent
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Leavers for next season

So the list of leavers came out this week and as expected with relegation it's quite a lengthy list: Josh Basham, Arno Botha, Joe Cokanasiga, Darren Dawidiuk, Ben Franks, Todd Gleave, Alex Lewington, Will Lloyd, Lasha Lomidze, James Marshall, Senitiki Nayalo, David Paice (retired), Richard Palframan, Tom Smallbone, Aseli Tikoirotuma, Johnny Williams, Tom Woolstencroft, Piet van Zyl Some of them will be of no surprise for example the two mid season joiners who were only ever on short term contracts. By all means it would have been great to keep them due to the positive impact but it just isn't too be. That said however I will discuss a few... Big Joe personally I think is a big loss for the future however if any of you have read his social media posts it was obviously a hard decision to make and I think for him it was done for the right reasons and with a heavy heart. I hope to see him wearing the England Rose soon as he certainly deserves it and maybe we will see him in Gree
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London Irish v Bristol United

Now I won't usually post match reviews but having taken the opportunity to compare Bristol the newly confirmed Premiership promoted side and Irish the although mathematically not over side they are certainly favourites for relegation to the Championship. I feel that I probably should post some thing. I do this comparison with some trepidation, I am aware that A league teams often vary in quality however I can say that based on tonights performance Irish were the better side at 62-5 victors. Two notable tries for Irish the first of which came from Jacob Atkins who seemingly over ran the ball following a kick through the defensive line, if it wasn't for his heel which kicked up the ball in a Zebo-esque fashion (thinking back to that 6nations try many moons ago) making the ball to go over his head and into his hands allowing him to score the try. The second came early in the first half with Irish in the Bristol 22, Furgus Mulchrone did a rather neat up and under into his own
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