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London Irish

Full name	London Irish Rugby Football Club
Union	RFU, Middlesex RFU, Surrey RFU, Irish RFU
Nickname(s)	The Exiles
Founded	1898; 121 years ago (1898)
Location	Reading, Berkshire, England
Ground(s)	Madejski Stadium (Capacity: 24,161[1])
Chairman	Kieran McCarthy
CEO	Brian Facer
President	Mick Crossan
Director of Rugby	Declan Kidney
Coach(es)	Les Kiss
League(s)	RFU Championship
2017–18	Premiership, 12th (relegated)
Official website
london-irish.com

London Irish RFC is a professional English rugby union club, with an Irish Identity. It was originally based in Sunbury, Surrey, where the senior squad train, youth teams and senior academy play home games, and the club maintain their administrative offices, at Hazelwood Drive. It competed in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union, every season since its inception in 1996-97, apart from the 2016–17 and 2018-19 seasons, in which they competed in the Greene King IPA Championship; winning the league in 2017. The club also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, until its demise in 2018, and has participated in both the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While playing in the Championship, in 2016-17 and 2018–19, Irish also played in the British and Irish Cup and its successor the RFU Championship Cup respectively. The club currently plays its home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire; however, at the end of the 2019/2020 season they will move to Brentford Community Stadium.

London Irish won its first major trophy in 2002, claiming the Powergen Cup (the competition that later became the Anglo-Welsh Cup). Irish also reached the final of the 2009 English Premiership, narrowly losing 10–9 to Leicester Tigers at Twickenham Stadium.^[2] In the 2007–08 season the team came close to a place in the Heineken Cup Final, losing out to Stade Toulousain 15–21 in a tense semi-final encounter at Twickenham Stadium.^[3]
The club's mascot is an Irish Wolfhound character called Digger.

History

The squad that played Racing Métro 92 at Parc des Princes in 1899.

London Irish playing at the Madejski Stadium with 22,648 people in attendance.

A match v Ulster in 2006.

London Irish's line out against Leicester Tigers.

London Irish drummers and fans at the Madejski Stadium.

London Irish was the last club to be formed in England by working and student exiles from the home countries, following London Scottish in 1878 and London Welsh in 1885. The first game took place on 1 October 1898 against the former Hammersmith club at Herne Hill Athletic Ground, with London Irish winning 8-3. The team that season benefitted from the early recruitment of vet and Irish international Louis Magee.^[4]

Academy

London Irish manage their own academy, with players such as Nick Kennedy, Topsy Ojo, Delon Armitage and Jonathan Joseph having gone on to play for the senior side and be internationally capped. Ojo still plays for the club in the current season, though Kennedy, Armitage and Joseph moved on.

Stadium

London Irish play at the Madejski Stadium, in Reading. Madejski is the home of Reading FC and was opened in August 1998. The ground is a 24,161 all-seater capacity stadium, and was the largest used as a regular home ground in the Premiership before Wasps moved to the Ricoh Arena in 2014.

With the exception of the annual London Double Header at Twickenham, all London Irish home matches are generally played at the Madejski. The largest crowd for a London Irish match was for a game against London Wasps on 15 March 2008 during the 2007–08 Guinness Premiership. The crowd of 23,790 was also the highest attendance for a regular season Guinness Premiership match^[5] until December 2008.

On 12 March 2016 London Irish played their first home Premiership match away from Madejski (and Twickenham), and also the first-ever Premiership match outside England, when they travelled to the USA to face Saracens at the New York Red Bulls' Red Bull Arena in the New York metropolitan area.^[6]

On 15 August 2016, the club announced its intention to return to London and that it was in formal discussions with Hounslow London Borough Council to play at Brentford FC's new stadium.^[7] On 10 February 2017, the club confirmed that the Council had approved its application to use the stadium for rugby, effectively allowing them to move into the new stadium from its opening season.^[8] This was later confirmed.^[9]

Current standings

Coaching staff

• Director of Rugby: Declan Kidney
  


• Head Coach: Les Kiss
  


• Defence Coach: Declan Danaher
  


• Forwards Coach: George Skivington
  


• Head of Strength & Conditioning: Robert Palmer

Current squad

The London Irish squad for the 2018–19 season is:^[10]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Saia Fainga'a Hooker Australia Motu Matu'u Hooker Samoa Dave Porecki Hooker Australia Michael van Vuuren Hooker South Africa Lovejoy Chawatama Prop Zimbabwe Pat Cilliers Prop South Africa Harry Elrington Prop England Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi Prop England Ollie Hoskins Prop Australia Gordon Reid Prop Scotland Manasa Saulo Prop Fiji Sebastian de Chaves Lock South Africa Barney Maddison Lock England Josh McNally Lock England Filo Paulo Lock Samoa Sam Twomey Lock England Franco van der Merwe Lock South Africa Albert Tuisue Lock Fiji Blair Cowan Back row Scotland Conor Gilsenan Back row Ireland TJ Ioane Back row Samoa Max Northcote-Green Back row England Matt Rogerson Back row England Jake Schatz Back row Australia Ofisa Treviranus Back row Samoa

Player Position Union Brendan McKibbin Scrum-half Australia Ben Meehan Scrum-half Australia Scott Steele Scrum-half Scotland Theo Brophy-Clews Fly-half England Ian Keatley Fly-half Ireland Stephen Myler Fly-half England Bryce Campbell Centre United States Ciaran Hearn Centre Canada Brendan Macken Centre Ireland Fergus Mulchrone Centre England Tom Stephenson Centre England Terrence Hepetema Centre New Zealand Tom Fowlie Wing England Napolioni Nalaga Wing Fiji Topsy Ojo Wing England Tommy Bell Fullback England Luke McLean Fullback Italy Alivereti Veitokani Fullback Fiji Greig Tonks Fullback Scotland

Senior Academy squad

The London Irish senior academy squad is:^[11]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Austin Hay Prop England Sam Collingridge Lock England Jack Cooke Flanker England Isaac Curtis-Harris Flanker England

Player Position Union Rory Brand Scrum-half Scotland Jacob Atkins Fly-half England Tom Parton Fly-half England Ollie Hassell-Collins Centre England Matt Williams Centre England Ben Loader Fullback England

Notable former players

Current kit

The kit is currently supplied by XBlades. The 2018-19 kits celebrates 120 years of Exiles by continuing the traditional dark green colour and retro collar design reintroduced last year. "Exiles from 1898" is also inscribed on the inside back collar and the London Irish emblem is on the left chest. The jersey also features an orange narrow striped design across the jersey.

The club's principle sponsor Powerday appears on the front centre, below XBlades' logo, with Thames Materials on the right chest. Other club sponsors Pump Technology and Keltbray appear on the back with Redrow Homes and Turmec Teoranta on the right sleeve. The playing shorts feature the logo of sponsors VGC Group and Cherwell Software in addition to the continued orange striped design.

The away kit is white with a two broad green striped design across the jersey.

Honours

• 
  European Challenge Cup:
  
  • Runners-up: 2005–06
    
  
  


• 
  English Premiership:
  
  • Runners-up: 2008–09
    
  
  


• 
  RFU Championship
  
  • Champions: 2016–17
    
  
  


• 
  Anglo-Welsh Cup:
  
  
  
  • Champions: 2002
  
  
  • Runners-up: 1980
  
  
  
  


• 
  Surrey Cup:
  
  • Winners (4): 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987
  
  


• 
  Middlesex Sevens:
  
  • Champions: 2009
  
  


• 
  Premiership Rugby Sevens Series
  
  • Champions: 2012
    
  
  


• 
  Cunningham Duncombe Series
  
  • Champions: 2016
  
  

London Irish Amateur logo.

London Irish Amateur

The club also hosts London Irish Amateur RFC (a separate legal entity) for non-professionals to allow them to improve in Rugby. The team plays at the location of London Irish's training ground and offices, Hazelwood in Sunbury. Some players such as Justin Bishop and Kieran Campbell have gone through the ranks to play for London Irish professional team.^[12]

Digger

Digger

Digger is an Irish Wolfhound and official mascot of London Irish. He has an important job in providing support to the Club.

On 30 May 2003 Digger won the "Best Mascot" award in Premiership Rugby at the Premier Rugby Marketing Awards.^[13]

On 23 April 2006, Digger ran the London Marathon raising money for Spinal Research. He finished the marathon in a time of 6 hours 39 minutes 31 seconds.^[14]

Colleagues

Digger was joined by his cousin, Duggie, from the 2006–07 season. Much taller and much slower, Duggie has proved popular with younger children attending matchdays. As well as the mascot characters, there is also a real Irish Wolfhound, Mr Doyle, who also attends the home games. Before Mr Doyle, his Great Uncle, Jumbo, attended home games before Jumbo retired and eventually died.

Trivia

• The Exiles once took part in an episode of Jackass. They were given the job of teaching Johnny Knoxville and Chris Pontius how to play rugby, no matter how rough it got.^{[citation needed]}
  


• A main character in the book, The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edward D Malone, a journalist, was also a player on the London Irish and scored a try.^{[citation needed]}
  


• YouTube phenomenon KSI (entertainer) made videos with London Irish at Hazelwood with Rule'm Sports.^{[citation needed]}
  

See also

• Rugby union in London


• London Cornish


• London Scottish


• London Welsh


• Richmond


• Rugby union in the United States


• Hazelwood

References

External links

• Official site


• Sunbury Centre


• Order Of The Odd-Shaped Ball


• The Craic


• London Irish Amateur RFC


• London Irish on Rugby15


• 
  London Irish ERCrugby.com


• London Irish Supporters Club