NICK KENNEDY says London Irish are back where they belong after securing an immediate Premiership return after a hard-fought victory over Yorkshire Carnegie in the Championship play-off final.
Irish came into the second leg with an 11-point cushion, but that was soon reduced by Carnegie in a frenetic first-half before the Exiles were able to pull away after the restart and record a 55-48 win on the night and an 84-66 victory on aggregate.
Irish ran in six tries at Madejski Stadium featuring a fantastic weaving run from Alex Lewington as well as scores from Brendan McKibbin, Fergus Mulchrone and Ciaran Hearn to seal their promotion.
And Kennedy, alongside fellow coaches Paul Hodgson and Declan Danaher have all signed new ‘long-term’ contracts with the club having clinched promotion.
“We did make it hard work against Yorkshire,” said Kennedy.
“But fair play to Yorkshire, they really came out swinging. They played some great rugby. They scored more points than anyone else has scored here against us.
“We’re just delighted to be back in the Premiership where I believe that the club belongs.
“It’s what we’ve prepared for all year.”
Irish, making only one change after Aseli Tikoirotuma’s suspension from the first-leg, got off to the best of starts when Hearn raced to the line after finding a gap in the Carnegie defence inside two minutes.
The visitors responded quickly, with Seb Stegmann to squaring the game up before Joe Ford kicked over to whittle down the aggregate deficit to just six points.
Irish faithful’s nerves were eased as McKibbin touched down from Lewington’s pass in only Irish’s second attack of the game.
As was the nature of the contest, Yorkshire bounced back with another try when Mike Mayhew was broke clear score against his former club. With Ford adding the extras, Carnegie
regained the lead, which changed hands four times inside the first 20 minutes.
Exiles ensured they would go in ahead 22-20 at the break when Mulchrone crashed over to earn Irish their third try, after approval from the television match official.
Mirroring Irish’s perfect start in the first-half, Lewington scored one of the tries of the season minutes after the restart, running from halfway, weaving and dodging past five Carnegie men to dab down under the posts. McKibbin completed his brace shortly after from close range.
And when Lewington pounced on a Carnegie error to run in Irish’s third try in eight minutes, Irish looked out of sight at 43-20 ahead on the night.
Yorkshire refused to give in though and Mike Coman’s sin bin for a high tackle on Jonah Holmes was capitalised on by the Leeds-based side, who pulled a try back when replacement Ben West went over from close range.
However, three penalties from the boot of Bell kept Irish ticking over. There was a lapse in discipline from both sides as the clock ticked down when an angry fracas broke out on the sidelines which resulted in the sending off of both Ben Franks for Irish and Charlie Beech for the visitors.
Carnegie finished strongly, with a penalty try as well as scores from Sione Faletau and a second for Stegmann, but it was not enough as Irish held out for the win to move back to the Premiership.
Looking ahead to next season, Kennedy said: “We’re always looking to get better. We need that pre-season time to work on certain areas of our game that need to be Premiership standard and our analysts will get working extremely hard between now and July when we start again.
“We know we’re a year off the pace. We’ve not been there for a year and we were the worst team in the league then as well.
“We’ve got a couple guys retiring and moving on and we’re trying to replace them with as best players we can. We’re going to look to strengthen in certain areas with our recruitment but we are under no illusions that we have a lot of work to do.”
LONDON IRISH: Bell, Lewington, Hearn, Mulchrone, Ojo, Marshall, McKibbin, Hobbs-Awoyemi, Paice (c), Franks, De Chaves, Sinclair, Coman, Cowan, Treviranus.
Reps: Porecki, Court, Hoskins, Robson, Narraway, Steele, Tonks.
Tries: Hearn (2), McKibbin x2 (17,47), Mulchrone (37), Lewington x2 (43,52)
Cons: Bell x5
Pens: Bell x5 (26,57,61,64,70)
Yellow cards: Coman, Court
Red card: Franks (72)
YORKSHIRE: Elder, Holmes, Lucock, Casson, Stegmann, Ford, Davies, Beech, Mayhew, Cusack, Smith, Myerscough, Stedman, Mayhew, Burrows (c).
Reps: Graham, Boyce, Faletau, West, Beck, Green, Wright.
Tries: Stegmann x2 (10,78), Mayhew (21), West (54), Penalty (68), Faletau (74)
Cons: Ford x6
Pens: Ford x2 (14,40)
Yellow card: Boyce
Red card: Beech (72)
Referee: Matt Carley
Attendance: 7,830
