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Watch: Epic farewell London Irish video will give you the feels

EX-London Irish skipper Matt Rogerson (Screen grab via London Irish)

London Irish have signed off on their brutal week by posting an emotional video on social media. The Exiles became the third Gallagher Premiership club in less than a year to fall out of English rugby, the RFU suspending them on Tuesday from all competitions in 2023/24 due to a lack of financial guarantees.

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With owner Mick Crossan unwilling to continue to bankroll the club after a decade in charge, Irish were dependent on a successful takeover by an American-led consortium. Those negotiations turned to dust, however, and it resulted in the club falling into administration on Wednesday.

The broken promises have left players and staff scrambling for employment elsewhere, but they have exited by making their presence felt on social media in a very classy way.

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On Thursday, the players and staff published a heartbreaking message for their fans and they followed this up on Friday with a two-minute, 44-second video that had the eyes watering.

It began with skipper Matt Rogerson addressing his team in a pre-match dressing room huddle prior to the May 6 win over Exeter, the final match they played before their demise.

“One more f***in’ time with this group. I’ve been saying it all week, one more f***in’ time… We leave nothing out there today because we are not getting it back, so let’s f***in’ go for it,” enthused the back-rower.

Next came some older footage showing ex-Wallabies international Nick Phipps firing up the team with his dressing room encouragement, reinforcing the message of how the Exiles were a special band of brothers.

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“We enjoy the good things, we celebrate, you f***in’ love together, you live together, you fight together because you are brothers… we shared everything together, now we get the f***in chance to go and enjoy it.”

Director of rugby Declan Kidney was next up, his voice in the dressing room croaking with emotion. “I couldn’t be prouder, and I wouldn’t like to be anywhere else,” he said.

“I can’t believe how much ye have grown in yourself. Ye know we have a good team. Just because we have a good team doesn’t mean we will win but it means there is no can’t. Like, why can’t we?”

What followed was a thrilling montage of London Irish in action, former stars such as Topsy Ojo and Delon Armitage running in tries, while the win-clinching score from Chandler Cunningham-South last December against Saracens was also included.

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The video finished with players and staff in a post-game huddle after last month’s win over Exeter proudly singing their club song one final time.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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