London Irish v Leeds Carnegie Sunday 4th May 3pm
Current Form
· London Irish did the Guinness Premiership proud on Saturday when they were beaten 21-15 by Toulouse in the semi-final of the Heineken Cup in front of a crowd of 30559 at Twickenham. They fought bravely to the end and the Frenchmen were hanging on in the final minutes.
· Back in the Premiership, they beat Harlequins at the Madejski Stadium last time out and will be looking to finish their home campaign with a bonus point victory against relegated Leeds. They are presently 7th in the Premiership, 8 points behind Leicester and it is extremely unlikely they will finish any higher than their present position which will mean that after 2 seasons playing in the Heineken Cup, they will probably be competing for the Challenge Cup next season.
· London Irish have played 10 matches at home this season, winning 8 and losing to Bath and London Wasps.
· Leeds had a break last weekend, but after losing their last game to Gloucester, they are now relegated from the Guinness Premiership and will be replaced by Northampton next season.
· Leeds have played 10 matches away from home this season. They haven’t won any of them but drew at Worcester.
History
· London Irish and Leeds have met 11 times in the Premiership since 2001.
· London Irish have won 7 times and Leeds 4.
· At the Madejski Stadium, London Irish have won 3 and Leeds 2.
· In every season they have met, one of the sides has completed a league double.
· London Irish doing so in 2002, 2004 and 2006 and Leeds completing doubles in 2003 and 2005,
· London Irish beat Leeds 26-24 at Headingley in January.
Trends and Trivia
· London Irish have won their last 3 matches in the Guinness Premiership and with 11 wins to their credit this season they are likely to finish around the middle of the table again. They have only finished in the top 4 in the Premiership twice in the last 11 seasons, in 2001/02 and 2005/06.
· London Irish have converted 57 penalties this season, the most in the Premiership.
· Yet, they have only kicked 13 conversions from 34 tries scored this season, the fewest number of conversions in the league. The lowest number of conversions they have ever kicked in a full season is 17 in 2004/05.
· London Irish have not secured any try bonus points at home this season. They have only gained one so far, and that was away at Leeds.
· However, no visiting side has managed to get a try bonus point at the Madejski Stadium this season. You will have deduced from this that the Madejski has not seen that many tries this season, only 29 in 10 matches, the same number as Edgeley Park.
· Peter Hewat is top scorer for London Irish this season with 81 points. The only other player to be top scorer in a season for London Irish with less than 100 points is Shane Geraghty with 83 last season. Barry Everitt of London Irish of course holds the record for the most ever points in a Premiership season with 343 in 2001/02.
· Sailosi Tagicakibau is the leading try scorer for London Irish this season with 6. The last London Irish player to score 10 tries in a Premiership season was Conor O’Shea in 1999/00.
· Steffon Armitage and Tonga Lea’aetoa are the only 2 London Irish players to have appeared in all 20 of their Premiership matches this season.
· The average attendance at the Madejski Stadium this season is 10194 with a seasonal high of 23709 against London Wasps which was a Premiership record crowd for a club ground. The lowest crowd was 6800 for the visit of Newcastle and it will be disappointing if Sunday’s crowd is lower after the heroics of last weekend.
· Leeds will be returning to National League One next season and they have only won 2 and drawn 1 from 20 played giving them a total of 12 points with 2 matches to play. Their previous lowest number of league points in a season was 28 in 2001/02 and 2005/06.
· Leeds have scored 28 tries this season. The lowest number they have scored in a full season is 34 in 2004/05.
· They will also be going down having scored their lowest number of points in a season. They have scored 288 points in 20 matches this season. They scored a record low of 363 last time they were in the Premiership in 2005/06.
· Leeds have conceded 644 points in their 20 Premiership matches this season. The most they have ever conceded in a season was 654 in their first season in the Premiership in 2001/02.
· Leeds have not won a Premiership match away from home since 25th November 2005 when they beat Bath at the Rec 16-12.
· Alberto Di Bernardo has scored 114 points for Leeds this season and Tom Biggs tops the tries with 5. Biggs was also their top try scorer last time they were in the Premiership in 2005/06, with 8.
· Joe Bedford and Leigh Hinton have played in all 20 Premiership matches for Leeds this season. |
