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Kidney downplays Hassell-Collins' hat-trick as London Irish continue impressive form

By PA
(Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney preferred to focus on the team rather than any individual after Ollie Hassell-Collins’ hat-trick inspired them to a 43-21 victory against Newcastle Falcons.

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The Exiles continued their improved form in the Gallagher Premiership by running in six tries at the Brentford Community Stadium, with Hassell-Collins displaying his impressive finishing abilities.

They go into the start of the European Challenge Cup campaign, and their opening match at French side Pau, with just one loss in their last eight matches and confidence building.

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Kidney said: “We don’t care who touches the ball down, as long as somebody does.

“Ollie has been motoring well for us and I’m glad for him, but all of those tries were good team tries.

“I was pleased with how we kept playing, and that’s what we need to do: we just need to keep playing.

“We can’t go into our shells, sides are built differently and we’re built to play, and we played for that much longer today, which is pleasing.

“It’s about applying pressure and taking your opportunities when they come.

“Today, we took them and we’ve had days where we didn’t. That’s the difference, isn’t it?

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“We’ve got a good atmosphere afterwards, as against previous results.

“We’re delighted with today, but we’re not going to get too carried away with ourselves because we know, from other ones, it’s a slim line between winning and losing matches.”

London Irish eased into 28-14 half-time lead, with Hassell-Collins running in twice and Kyle Rowe and Steve Mafi also going over, while Sean Robinson and Callum Chick replied for Newcastle.

Hassell-Collins completed his hat-trick before Agustin Creevy got in on the act for the Exiles, rendering Adam Radwan’s late score for the Falcons just a consolation.

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Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards said: “Credit to London Irish because they’re a good side who played well on the day, but we have to look to ourselves.

“We gave them soft tries, we conceded far too easily and didn’t take our own opportunities.

“The players are understandably disappointed in the changing room because it means a lot to them and they’ve worked hard during the week to put in a big performance, and it hasn’t happened.

“We’ll address it as a group, as we always do, and the boys will be very subdued on the long bus trip home.

“We won’t make any excuses – we just weren’t good enough on the day, and credit must go to London Irish for being much more clinical in executing their game plan.

When asked how he’ll be approaching the upcoming European games, he said: “It’s a tough one, because we play Worcester and then we have a bye week going into the Boxing Day Premiership game against Sale.”

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H
Hellhound 30 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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