London Irish 17 - Hawks 17

The final game of the league stages was a tense affair 30 minutes gone and the scores still 0-0 the defensive effort of both teams cancelling out the attack from the opposition. Territory was key and the Hawks were missing that little composure they always have to figure out where it was going to come from

Then a long kick from Irish deep into the Hawks 22 putting us under pressure then up steps Senan, he gathers but there is no where to go all the Irish players bearing down on him but some how he gets by the first defender then the second, he’s now out of our 22 and goes by a third, Senan is putting on the gas and it’s now Irish under pressure he’s past the half way and goes by the 4th defender, Irish are scrambling and once goes now into the Irish 22, three players around him but Kallen is in support takes the pass with some work to do, evades a couple of defenders into the try area and sits down under the posts wholly molly what have we just seen 🤩 converted by Eddie

A few minutes later it’s HT Hawks up by 7-0

The 2nd half’s starts it’s all Irish we are getting dragged into that arm wrestle we said we didn’t want, but Irish are just keeping it tight nothing fancy just forward Howard move and they eventually cross it’s a tied game 7-7

The momentum was with Irish but the hawks take the 3 deep breaths we talked about composed themselves and went again, this time the Hawks using a bit of forward power but it was Will Mac who joined the red ball sequence and crashed over Hawks up 12-7

But back came Irish crossing over themselves a missed conversion the game tied again 12-12

Irish had their tails up were putting hawks under huge pressure the defence was unbelievable but Irish went ahead for the first time, missed conversion score 17-12 to Irish

There was 10 to go could Hawks pick themselves up and salvage something, yes and it was fitting that our captain for the day Sid who led the side fantastically crashed over to tie things up 17-17

With a few minutes to go it was all Hawks there was only going to be one winner but the clock beat us and it ended up a draw a fair result which ensured the Hawks finished top of tier 1 pool 2 (see below) and secure a home quarter final next week we think Ironsides

All the boys were magnificent not out best performance but effort and commitment we can build on, Wilf is turning into some player what a performance 👏