London Irish vs Exeter: Andy Goode news all bad as Exiles look across Atlantic in quest for points

Riddled with injury problems and somewhere near rock bottom on the confidence front, the last thing London Irish needed in front of a pitifully small home crowd – the entire paying public could have congregated in the tunnel and still not brushed shoulders with the players as they took the field – was another outbreak of second-half subsidence in a game they fancied their chances of winning. Make that almost the last thing.

When the Exiles trudged off the field, the bulletin from the Newcastle-Northampton game took the form of a double whammy. Not only had the Tynesiders, their fellow relegation candidates, found the wherewithal to continue their run of form by beating opponents ahead of them in the Premiership pecking order, but they had done so on the back on another significant contribution from Andy Goode.

The former England outside-half had been due to spend the season at London Irish, but retired before playing a game for the club. By unretiring himself and heading for the North-east on a short-term contract – and by kicking goals for fun ever since – he has not exactly endeared himself to the Exiles’ supporters.

Indeed, he remains the talk of the town down Reading way: “If an army marches on its stomach, Newcastle have signed themselves a one-man battalion,” said one local joker, referring to Goode’s eye-catching periphery. It wasn’t the worst wisecrack in rugby history, but the only man laughing now is the one in the tight No 10 shirt.

Cut adrift at the bottom of the table, London Irish must now travel to Leicester and Bath in search of the points that might stave off relegation. Not even their home games offer much hope: the next time they play host, it will be to the reigning champions Saracens – in New York, of all places in Christendom. The Premiership top brass may have great faith in this latest missionary project, but it is hard to believe that they would not rather stick with their own creature comforts.

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There were moments in the first half when they looked as though they might give an out-of-kilter Exeter something of a hurry-up. Driven along by a couple of gnarled forwards in David Paice and Luke Narraway, they scored a decent opening try through the Samoan flanker Ofisa Treviranus and showed further signs of attacking intent in midfield, through the outside-half Theo Brophy Clewes and the inside centre Johnny Williams – no more than kids but as keen as mustard (and, in Williams’ case, every bit as hot).

But Exeter somehow dragged themselves back to within a point at the interval, partly through their strength at scrum time and partly because the referee, Dean Richards, took it upon himself to penalise Treviranus for an unusually heavy but perfectly legal tackle on the full-back Phil Dollman. Once the West Countrymen started unloading their bench after the break, it was one-way traffic.

Rob Baxter, the Devonians’ head coach, was less than delighted by his side’s first-half effort and even less amused by the home side’s strategic approach. “They tried everything they knew to take all the tempo out of the game – they even had people stopping the ballboys giving our hookers the ball,” he said. “But when I see those kinds of off-the-pitch antics, I think it’s a positive result for us. It gives us a clear idea of what they’re trying to do.”

Not for the first time, Exeter were able to depend on Gareth Steenson’s goal-kicking – the outside-half claimed 17 points from the tee – and a characteristically aggressive contribution from the flanker Don Armand, who must rank high on any list of player of the campaign. After Dave Lewis, the substitute scrum-half, had given the visitors the lead with a 50th-minute blind-side snipe that was too easy for words, it was Armand who ran virtually the length of the field in an effort to prevent Topsy Ojo, the super-quick Exiles wing, completing an 80-metre breakaway try. He did not quite manage it, but the fact that he laid hands on Ojo spoke volumes for his fitness, his commitment and everything else he offers.

“The thing was, he forced Ojo to finish in the corner rather than under the sticks and made the conversion really difficult,” said Baxter, admiringly. “That kind of thing turns games. It can even define seasons. It tells you that, even when you’re struggling for rhythm as a team, you have people who are prepared to stand and fight.”

If there is any fight left in the Exiles, now is the time to show it. “We found some energy and some attitude out there, which was encouraging, so now we have to work out ways of winning away from home – something we haven’t been able to do this season,” said their head coach, Tom Coventry, the New Zealander imported last summer from the Waikato-based Chiefs, a successful Super Rugby franchise.

“Do I think we can still stay up?” Coventry continued, rhetorically. “I’m always asked that question – I was asked it on the day I arrived here – and my answer is the same: without a doubt. I’m an optimistic kind of bloke and I see chances in every game.” Sadly, there are London Irish supporters out there who fear for his vision.

London Irish: Tries Treviranus, Ojo; Conversion Brophy Clewes; Penalty Brophy Clewes. Exeter: Try Lewis; Conversion; Steenson; Penalties Steenson 5.

London Irish A Fenby; T Ojo, F Mulchrone, J Williams, C Hearn; T Brophy Clews, S Steele (D Allinson, 63); T Smallbone (T Court, 53), D Paice (G Ellis, 68), H Aulika (L Halavatau, 53), M Symons (I Nagle, 15-18 and 24), E Stooke, O Treviranus (J Trayfoot, 61), L Narraway (capt), R McCusker (Ellis, 39-45).

Exeter P Dollman; O Woodburn, I Whitten, S Hill (M Campagnaro, 60), J Short; G Steenson, W Chudley (D Lewis, 48); B Moon (A Hepburn, 54), J Yeandle (capt, L Cowan-Dickie, 54), M Low (T Francis, 54), J Hill (A Atkins, 60), G Parling, D Armand, J Salvi, T Waldrom (K Horstmann, 71).

Referee D Richards (Berkshire).