DELON ARMITAGE is back and the world seemed a better place as the icy darkness fell over Reading. Out since September with a dislocated shoulder, he was given quarter of an hour at the end of the game to make a mark.
And that he did, slicing through a tired Brive defence with customary flamboyance to score a much longed for bonus-point try with the last play of the game.
“It was always going to be him,” said Toby Booth, the London Irish head coach, grinning broadly. “You joke about it being fate but you saw Delon’s true class. When you give him the ball, that’s what happens.”
So there will be plenty hoping not only that he enjoys a safe and painless reintegration to the England fold but that they do precisely that: give him the ball.
It is too soon to get too excited – he is flesh and blood, after all – but Armitage himself said: “It was a brilliant comeback after being injured for so long. Martin Johnson will be watching these games and I need to perform if I want to get back into the England team.”
It was more than a little symbolic to see him light up a match that had suffered from the bitter cold and, if he can do the same for the England team, the Six Nations need not be such a depressing idea for their long-suffering fans.
“He’s ready now,” said Booth of his fitness for the national cause. “You saw that. But it’s good to drip-feed players like him back in as we did today. It sends out a message to everyone else that no one gets treated differently.”
Irish’s best performers were probably those outside backs living in Armitage’s shadow, although the coldness did not make getting the ball out to them very easy. Tom Homer looked sharp, never more so than when scoring the game’s first try in the 10th minute, set free by his full-back, Peter Hewat, another good performer.
But this game will not be remembered long, other than for the pomp of Armitage’s return. When Homer scored that first try, a rout seemed on the cards but it never quite materialised.
Brive did not capitulate and their defence was never breached again when fully manned. Sadly for them, they had not reckoned on the referee, James Jones, who showed yellow cards to four of their players, two of the stints in the bin more or less coinciding with each other. It was at the end of that stretch, when down to 13, that Elvis Seveali’i went over for Irish’s third try on the hour.
Booth, inevitably, praised the referee for taking his stand but four yellow cards is a bit exceptional and Brive were not carrying on in an obviously outrageous manner. Indeed, the penalty count was roughly even.
Still Brive, for whom another England man, Steve Thompson, had a lively game, will probably not be complaining, since their interest in this competition has long since evaporated. Neither will Irish, whose interest is becoming ever more intense.
We should have a pool decider here in January, when Leinster come to Reading. Armitage will no doubt start that one. And then the Six Nations gets under way.
Guardian Service
LONDON IRISH:Hewat; Homer, Seveali'i (Lennard 70), Mapusua, Rudd (D Armitage, 67); Malone (Lamb 64), Lalanne; Dermody (Rautenbach 70), Paice (Coetzee 61), Ion (Murphy 53), Kennedy, Casey (capt), Thorpe, S Armitage (Roche 64), Hala'ufia (Stowers 53). Tries: Homer, Mapusua, Seveali'i, D Armitage. Cons: Malone 3, Lamb. Pens: Malone 2.
BRIVE:Jeanjean (Spedding, 57); Cooke, Noon (Agulla, 64), Mackay, Namy; Orquera, Pejoine (Perry h-t); Kinchagishvili (Henn h-t), Thompson, Zimmerman (Barnard 13), Uys, Browne (Dubarry 64), Forgues, Azoulai (capt), Domingo. Try: Namy. Con: Orquera. Pens: Orquera 2. Sin-bin: Uys 33, Barnard 52, Noon 54, Spedding 73.
Referee:J Jones (Wales).
