 | London Irish: (22) 30
Tries: Armitage 2, Ojo 2
Cons: Flutey 2
Pens: Flutey, Everitt Saracens: (13) 18
Tries: Harris, Castaignede
Cons: Jackson
Pens: Jackson 2 |
London Irish will travel to Welford Road to play Leicester in the Premiership play-offs after a hard-fought win against Saracens. Irish, who finished third in the table, scored four tries, with Delon Armitage and Topsy Ojo claiming a brace apiece.
Saracens responded with scores from Dan Harris and Thomas Castaignede, while four players were yellow carded.
It was also the final game of Saracens' ex-England scrum-half Kyran Bracken's illustrious career.
In an end-to-end game, Sarries opened the scoring with a well-worked try from Harris.
Glen Jackson converted and added a 12th-minute penalty to give Sarries a 10-0 lead.
Irish got on the scoreboard with a terrific try of their own five minutes later as Armitage flew in at the corner for an unconverted score.
Jackson nudged the visitors further ahead before Armitage won a foot race to score his second try of the match.
Flutey's conversion took Irish ahead for the first time, and they went further in front when the impressive Ojo read Jackson's pass to score an interception try.
Flutey added the extras to make it 22-13 after 35 minutes but Sarries hit back when Castaignede carved open the home side's defence with a beautifully-angled run.
Substitute Barry Everitt stretched the Irish lead to seven points with a 61st minute penalty and Ojo made sure of victory with his second interception try in the closing stages.
London Irish coach Brian Smith on the rested Mike Catt:
"Everyone says 'He's a fantastic player but...'. What they actually mean is 'He's a fantastic player but he's 35'. "It (his age) doesn't matter if Mike Catt performs like he did last weekend and has performed in 25 games for us this season - and in some games I've had to hold him back - because he is the flavour of the month.
"You can't say it's just an end of season flutter either because Mike Catt stood up for us in the first game of the season and has been a leader all season."
Saracens coach Mike Ford on taking over as England defence coach:
"I've got an appointment with Saracens next week to talk about the coaching structure. They've got ideas of changing it and they want to sit down with me to see where I fit into it. "I know Francis Baron (RFU chief executive) contacted Saracens, and they have rung me up, but I told them I needed to sort things out with Saracens.
"The closing date for applications for the England job is next Friday, by which time my position with Saracens will be clarified."
London Irish: Armitage; Ojo, Geraghty, Feaunati, Tagicakibau; Flutey, Willis; Collins, Russell, Skuse; Casey, Kennedy; Danaher, Dawson, Leguizamon.
Replacements: Hatley, Paice, Roche, Murphy, Pedro Tiesi,Hodgson, Everitt.
Saracens: Castaignede; Scarbrough, Sorrell, Harris, Vaikona; Jackson, Bracken; Yates, Byrne, Visagie; Raiwalui, Ryder; Chesney, B T Russell, Vyvyan.
Replacements: Cairns, Lloyd, Broster, Seymour, Rauluni, Powell, Haughton.
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