Rugby Union: Corcoran lays on kick-start

London Irish. .12

Northampton. . .3

THEY came like a bunch of molly- coddled footballers expecting an easy ride, but the Saints, for all their trumpeted aspirations of league leadership, went marching backwards in the face of a sustained 80 minutes of assault by London Irish.

On this form, the sacred shrine to liquid genius in Sunbury may have seen the Damascus touch which will wash away fears of relegation. The boyos have learned to believe in themselves.

The Irish badly needed a couple of points to stop a trio of defeats. But on Saturday's showing it was Northampton, with four points in the bank, who need to stop the rot after Irish were left smacking their lips at a brew of increasing strength.

As Wayne Shelford is coaching coordinator at Northampton and his brother, Dean, has the same title for the Irish, where Hika Reid is first-team coach and Western Samoa's Matt Keenan is playing in the second row, there was a Polynesian overlay to the afternoon.

But Northampton could not buck the rain, slippery ball, or the long-stemmed Irish turf as they trundled round in a tired, lack- lustre mood. And, but for the burly figure of the left wing Harvey Thorneycroft, so strong in defence against a ravenously hungry Simon Geoghegan, the misery could have been worse.

Nor did John Steele's solitary penalty success from six attempts constitute an unrepresentative reward for his side's overall efforts as the ex-footballer Michael Corcoran pushed his season's total to 72 with all 12 Irish points from four more penalties.

'I was surprised at how easy they were,' Keenan said afterwards. John Olver, the Northampton captain, had no excuses. 'We did nothing,' he said. 'We've played three games and haven't functioned and it's up here, in our heads.'

From the time an adrenalin- eyed David Pegler gave a last, bared-tooth crank to an already tensioned pack as they ran on the field, the difference in attitude was obvious.

In the front row Gary Halpin, 26 going on 39, spent 79 minutes exacting full retribution for an opening Gavin Baldwin gambit. Ciaran Fitzgerald, Ireland's coach, is surely aware of how strong is Halpin's hunger to play for his country again.

As Olver threw in badly and nullified Martin Bayfield by getting all the first-half line-out calls in a muddle, the former Saint Colin Hall, together with Aran Verling and Brian Robinson, poached blatantly and successfully. The back-row battle was all Irish.

Their game was scarcely interrupted as Rob Saunders moved to stand-off when Paul Burke, the England Under-21 player, went off with a dislocated collar bone, John Byrne taking over at scrum- half.

With the all-important possession, it was not luck that was the reason for smiling eyes but a creamy-topped celebration of solid, marauding success. Next week, Orrell.

London Irish: Penalties Corcoran 4. Northampton: Penalty Steele.

London Irish: J Staples; S Geoghegan, R Hennessy, D Curtis (capt), M Corcoran; P Burke (J Byrne, 23), R Saunders; N Donovan, J McFarland, G Halpin, C Hall, M Keenan, A Verling, B Robinson, D Pegler.

Northampton: N Beal; J Griffiths, F Packman, R MacNaughton, H Thorneycroft; J Steele, M Dawson; G Baldwin, J Olver, L Baker, M Bayfield, J Etheridge, P Walton, W Shelford, R Tebbutt.

Referee: B Campsal (Halifax)