HEINEKEN CUP/Brive 3 London Irish 36:ANOTHER BUSY week awaits the Heineken Cup's disciplinary officials, following the acrimony on Saturday night which reduced Brive to 13 players in the final quarter. By the time the reverse fixture kicks off this weekend, the French lock Arnaud Mela could be facing a third ban for foul play in two years.
London Irish’s head coach, Toby Booth, called for action to be taken. Booth was delighted with his team’s five-try, bonus-point victory, which put them on top of Pool Six, but he claimed that the sending-off of Brive’s replacement hooker, Guillaume Ribes, for kicking Danie Coetzee did not punish the worst offender.
“There is no place in this game for thuggery and I’m really pleased that with TV, people who cross the line get caught,” said Booth, alleging that the trouble was started by a punch from Mela at a 67th-minute scrum.
“There is a difference between physical and dirty and cheating. It was not the hooker who threw the punch but the second row and TV will vindicate that. I am sure the people who should get punished will be.”
Mela, 29, received a three-week ban for punching Steve Borthwick in a game between Bath and Albi two years ago and a four-week suspension in January for striking Paul Emerick in a Challenge Cup game against Overmach Parma.
Brive, who cannot now qualify for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, said that Ribes had been provoked by Coetzee, who was later sent to the sin-bin following a brawl with the home team’s starting hooker, Jean-Philippe Bonrepaux.
“Our player says the hooker spat blood at him so he put his foot up,” said Brive’s chief executive, Simon Gillham.
“Our man is very upset. We’ll have to look at the video.”
The tape will definitely show that Brive, who were involved in an infamous brawl with Pontypridd players during their last Heineken Cup campaign, in 1997-98, failed to enhance the club’s reputation. Having beaten Toulouse the previous week, despite an outbreak of swine flu, they fielded a below-strength team here and paid the price. Gillham said his club would not lie down in Reading on Saturday.
“I said to the lads [that] we weren’t respecting the Heineken Cup by shipping 30 points at home,” he said. “Next Saturday we’re going to go with the strongest team we have.”
With Andy Goode due to have his appendix out today and Riki Flutey not due back until 30 December, however, the Exiles will fancy another bonus-point win.
On Saturday, Tom Homer scored two tries but the most eye-catching score came from the openside flanker Steffon Armitage, who showed Test-class pace and power in a burst down the left touchline. Nick Kennedy and Chris Malone were also influential and London Irish’s positive intentions with the ball in hand were rewarded.
“This was about London Irish showing people what London Irish are about,” said Booth.
“We wanted to show resilience . . . the biggest plus was that we showed what we stood for.”
The head coach is braced for another tough match this weekend.
“We know what physicality we are going to get because we have seen it,” he said.
BRIVE: Agulla; Palisson, Cooke, MacKay, Namy; Estebanez, Perry; Barnard, Bonrepaux, Zimmermann, Short, Mela, Vosloo, Domingo, Claassen.
Replacements: Spedding for Palisson (62), Orquera for Estebanez (43), Pejoine for Perry (41), Kinchagishvili for Barnard (55), Ribes for Bonrepaux (55), Idieder for Zimmermann (55), Uys for Short (41), Dubarry for Claassen (59).
Sin Bin: Bonrepaux (72).
Sent Off: Ribes (67).
LONDON IRISH: Hewat; Homer, Seveali’i, Mapusua, Rudd; Malone, Hodgson; Dermody, Paice, Ion, Kennedy, Casey, Thorpe, S Armitage, Hala’ufia.
Replacements: Lamb for Malone (76), Lalanne for Hodgson (57), Murphy for Dermody (70), Coetzee for Paice (67), Perry for Casey (74), Lahiff for S. Armitage (79).
Not Used: Roche, Lennard.
Sin Bin: Coetzee (72).
Referee: George Clancy (IRFU).
