London Irish RFC is an English rugby union club, with an Irish Identity. It was originally based in Sunbury, Surrey, where the senior squad train, youth teams and senior academy play home games, and the club maintain their administrative offices. It has competed in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union, every season since its inception in 1996-97, apart from the 2016-17 and 2018-19 seasons, in which they competed in the Greene King IPA Championship, winning the league in 2017. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup and has participated in both the European Champions Cup or European Challenge Cup. In 2016 it played in the British and Irish Cup in addition to the Championship. The club will play its home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire until at least 2019.
London Irish won its first major trophy in 2002, claiming the Powergen Cup (the competition that later became the Anglo-Welsh Cup). Irish also reached the final of the 2009 English Premiership, narrowly losing 10-9 to Leicester Tigers at Twickenham Stadium. In the 2007-08 season the team came close to a place in the Heineken Cup Final losing out to Stade Toulousain 15-21 in a tense semi-final encounter at Twickenham Stadium. The club's mascot is an Irish Wolfhound called Digger.
Video London Irish
History
London Irish was the last club to be formed in England by working and student exiles from the home countries, following London Scottish in 1878 and London Welsh in 1885. The first game took place on 1 October 1898 against the former Hammersmith club at Herne Hill Athletic Ground, London Irish winning by eight points to three. The team benefited from the early recruitment of vet and Irish international Louis Magee.
Maps London Irish
Academy
London Irish manage their own academy, with players such as Nick Kennedy, Jonathan Joseph, Topsy Ojo and Delon Armitage having gone on to play for the senior side and be internationally capped.
Stadium
London Irish play at the Madejski Stadium, in Reading. Madejski is the home of Reading FC and was opened in August 1998. The ground is a 24,161 all-seater capacity stadium, and was the largest used as a regular home ground in the premiership before Wasps moved to the Ricoh Arena in 2014.
With the exception of the annual London Double Header at Twickenham, all London Irish home matches are played at the Madejski. The largest crowd for a London Irish match was for a game against London Wasps on 15 March 2008 during the 2007-08 Guinness Premiership. The crowd of 23,790 was also the highest attendance for a regular season Guinness Premiership match until December 2008.
On 12 March 2016 London Irish played their first home Premiership match away from Madejski (and Twickenham), and also the first-ever Premiership match outside England, when they travelled to the USA to face Saracens at the New York Red Bulls' Red Bull Arena in the New York metropolitan area.
On 15 August 2016, the club announced their intention to return to London and that they were in formal discussion with Hounslow London Borough Council to play at Brentford FC's new stadium. On 10 February 2017, the club confirmed that Brentford had approved their application to use the stadium for rugby, effectively allowing them to move into the new stadium from its opening season.
Current standings
Coaching staff
- Director of Rugby: Declan Kidney
- Head Coach: Les Kiss
- Defence Coach: Declan Danaher
- Attack/Skills Coach: Paul Hodgson
- Forwards Coach: George Skivington
- Kicking Coach: Charlie Hodgson
- Head of Strength & Conditioning: Robert Palmer
Current squad
The London Irish squad for the 2018-19 season is:
Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.
Senior Academy squad
The London Irish academy squad is:
Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.
Notable former players
Current kit
The kit is supplied by XBlades. The 2017-18 kits celebrates 120 years of Exiles by returning to a traditional dark green and retro collar design with 'Exiles from 1898' inscribed on the inside back collar and the London Irish emblem on the left chest. The jersey also features a white grid design covering the shoulders and progressing down both sides and continuing onto the shorts.
The club's principle sponsor Powerday appears on the front centre below XBlades' logo, with Thames Materials on the right chest. Other club sponsors Pump Technology and Keltbray appear on the back with Redrow Homes and Turmec Teoranta on the right sleeve. The playing shorts feature the logo of sponsors VGC Group and Cherwell Software in addition to the continued white grid design.
The away kit is a sky blue colour with a simpler two broad striped design on the shoulder of the jersey.
Honours
- Surrey Cup:
- Winners (4): 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987
- English Premiership:
- Runners-up: 2008-09
- European Challenge Cup:
- Runners-up: 2005-06
- Anglo-Welsh Cup:
- Champions: 2002
- Runners-up: 1980
- Middlesex Sevens:
- Champions: 2009
- Premiership Rugby Sevens Series
- Champions: 2012
- Cunningham Duncombe Series
- Champions: 2016
- RFU Championship
- Champions: 2016-17
London Irish Amateur
London Irish also host London Irish Amateur RFC (a separate legal entity) for non-professionals to allow them to improve in Rugby. The team play at the location of London Irish's training ground and offices, Hazelwood in Sunbury. Some players such as Justin Bishop and Kieran Campbell have come through the ranks to play for London Irish.
Digger
Digger is an Irish Wolfhound and official mascot of London Irish. He has an important job of providing support to the Club.
On 30 May 2003 Digger won the "Best Mascot" award in Premiership Rugby at the Premier Rugby Marketing Awards.
On 23 April 2006, Digger ran the London Marathon raising money for Spinal Research. Digger finished the marathon in a time of 6 hours 39 minutes 31 seconds.
Colleagues
Digger was joined by his cousin, Duggie, from the 2006-07 season. Much taller and much slower, Duggie has proved popular with younger children attending matchdays. As well as Digger, there is also a real Irish Wolfhound, Mr Doyle, who also attends the home games. Before Mr Doyle, his Great Uncle, Jumbo, attended home games before Jumbo retired and eventually died.
Trivia
- The Exiles once took part in an episode of Jackass. They were given the job of teaching Johnny Knoxville and Chris Pontius how to play rugby, no matter how rough it got.
- A main character in the book, The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edward D Malone, a journalist, was also a player on the London Irish and scored a try.
- YouTube phenomenon KSI (entertainer) made videos with London Irish at Hazelwood with Rule'm Sports.
See also
- Rugby union in London
- London Cornish
- London Scottish
- London Welsh
- Richmond
- Rugby union in the United States
- Hazelwood
References
External links
- Official site
- Sunbury Centre
- Order Of The Odd-Shaped Ball
- The Craic
- London Irish Amateur RFC
- London Irish on Rugby15
- London Irish ERCrugby.com
Source of article : Wikipedia
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