Perpignan pay heavy penalty

Pool One/London Irish 24 Perpignan 16:There have been some big sporting weekends in Berkshire over the years but seldom such a momentous double. If Reading's 3-1 home win over Liverpool was more of a surprise than London Irish's scrappy victory yesterday over their unbeaten pool rivals Perpignan, the Exiles do not need telling how significant this scoreline could be when the quarter-final qualification sums are done next month.

Not only do Irish boast the best record in the tournament, with 14 points from a possible 15, but reaching the last eight of Europe's elite club competition for the first time is now a real target. Assuming they survive what their director of rugby, Brian Smith, predicts will be a "tasty" reverse fixture at the Stade Aime Giral this weekend they will be more than halfway to a home quarter-final.

Perpignan's failure to hang on to a 9-8 half-time lead maintained the trend of French frustration in Europe, with only Stade Francais and Clermont Auvergne managing victories on another wet and mucky weekend. On this occasion the Catalans had three men sin-binned, were reduced to 13 men at a key moment in the second-half and lost out to a penalty try awarded with almost indecent haste by the Scottish referee Malcolm Changleng.

"I've played seven games in Europe with Perpignan and we've not won one game in England," said their captain, Perry Freshwater, a little-used back-up prop in England's World Cup squad.

"The coaches and players are up in arms, as they often are, but we have to go away and look at ourselves. We lost that game because of our indiscipline."

Irish were not complaining, after a scare before the contest. Ninety minutes before kick-off they were unsure if Mike Catt would be fit to play after the 36-year-old's back locked up in the captain's run on Saturday. He played the full 80 minutes but as a consequence his availability for next week is in doubt. Shane Geraghty has had the cast removed from his broken right hand but is not earmarked to resume at first-team level until Sunday week.

Judging by the amount of niggle which peppered yesterday's game on a damp, windy afternoon, Saturday's return contest in France might not be the ideal occasion for the young England outhalf to rush back. The match is due to be controlled by an inexperienced Italian official and Smith is anticipating a backlash.

"I'm sure the Perpignan players will be revved up," he said. "We're going into the lions' den. We'll just have to hope the referee is a strong character."

As far as Perpignan are concerned, any official would be preferable to another encounter with Changleng. The visitors are as cosmopolitan a bunch as any, boasting seven nationalities in their starting pack yesterday, but there were still plenty of Gallic shrugs in evidence. Their Samoan number eight Henry Tuilagi, had to be gingerly escorted from the fray after barely three minutes and his replacement, the big South African Gerrie Britz, was soon back on the touchline having been shown a yellow card for killing the ball.

The Irish hooker, David Paice, was also sent to the bin on the stroke of half-time, for retaliation, and in his absence Perpignan stretched into a 16-8 lead when the wing Adrien Plante skilfully volleyed ahead a cross-kick by Cedric Rosalen and touched down the bouncing ball. For a moment it seemed as if Irish, dominant initially, had blown their big chance but the game was transformed on the hour when the lock Rimas Alvarez Kairelis was sent to the sin-bin for a professional foul.

Irish, as they had done for Bob Casey's 21st-minute score, drove towards the French line following a close-range lineout. Down went the maul. Not since Alan Wells was winning 100 metres titles has a Scot been quicker off the mark than Changleng, who was away towards the posts, indicating a penalty try, within milliseconds. When he duly came jogging back to send Nicholas Mas to the sin-bin for deliberately entering the side of the maul, Perpignan's misery was complete.

When the Exiles do release the handbrake there are few more dangerous-looking back lines around but this more basic approach, consisting mainly of hefty kicks from Catt, some determined forward graft and the marksmanship of Peter Hewat, did the necessary.

Hewat's 45-metre penalty with the game's final kick also deprived the visitors of a bonus point, further stoking Perpignan's evident sense of injustice.

LONDON IRISH: Hewat; De Vedia, D Armitage, Mapusua, Tagicakibau; Catt, Richards; D Murphy, Paice, Skuse, Kennedy, Casey (capt), Roche, Danaher, Leguizamon. Replacements: Lea'aetoa for Skuse (half-time), S Armitage for Danaher (75 mins).

PERPIGNAN: Porical; Manas, Marty, Grandclaude, Plante; Hume, Durand; Freshwater (capt), Tincu, Bozzi, Alvarez Kairelis, Hines, Vaki, Chouly, Tuilagi. Replacements: Britz for Tuilagi (3 mins), Olibeau for Vaki (25 mins), Rosalen for Grandclaude (36 mins), Mas for Bozzi (46 mins), Mele for Hume (48 mins), Pulu for Freshwater (72 mins).

Referee M Changleng (Scotland).