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London Irish
Full name	London Irish Rugby Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Exiles
Founded	1898
Location	Reading, England
Ground	Madejski Stadium
Capacity	24,250
Chairman	Ian Taylor
Coach	Brian Smith
League	Guinness Premiership
2006-07	6th
Home colours		Away colours
Official website
www.london-irish.com

For the British Army regiment see London Irish Rifles

London Irish (also known as The Exiles) are an English rugby union club who are based in Sunbury, Surrey (16 miles from London) where they train. They compete in the top division of English rugby union, the Guinness Premiership. The club also competes in the Anglo-Welsh EDF Energy Cup as well as the European Rugby Cups; the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup. The club play out of the Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire, some 40 miles from London.

The London club was founded in 1898 for the young Irish people of the city. The club was created after a time that saw similar clubs in London founded, including the London Welsh and London Scottish. London Irish play in green and black colours, with their away strip consisting of green and white. The club's mascot is an Irish Wolfhound called Digger.London Irish won their first major trophy in 2002, claiming the Powergen Cup (now EDF Energy Cup).

Contents 1 History 2 Stadium 3 Current standing 4 Current squad 4.1 Current England Elite Squad 4.2 Other Internationally Capped Players 5 Notable Former Players 6 Honours 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

Also known as The Exiles, London Irish RFC were formed in 1898 for the young Irishmen of London; it was modelled on the already established London Welsh and London Scottish teams. London Irish suffered during World War I and the Irish War of Independence. It was not until 1923 when the Irish Free State was established and peace returned that the club was able to welcome players from across the Irish Sea on a regular basis.

By the late 1920s the club boasted its first "home grown" Ireland international in S J 'Cags' Cagney who won 13 caps between 1925 and 1929. The club developed a home of its own in 1931 at The Avenue in Sunbury, the first game was played on 5 December against London Welsh; the result was an honourable 8-8 draw. Although the club now play their games as tenants of Reading FC at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, the ground at Sunbury is still its spiritual home.

The 50s was a period of mixed fortunes for London Irish. In 1959-1960 season London Irish only lost 2 games all season, featuring Ireland International players such as Andy Mulligan & Sean McDermott (shame league rugby didn't arrive until over 30 years later) . Mike (C.M.H.) Gibson (played 1 game in the late 60's), Tony O'Reilly (who played a handful of games in 1970) and Ollie Waldron (who played in the late 60's-early 70's), all graced the Sunbury pitch.

The improving quality of fixtures demanded a change in attitude to training and playing as the sixties became the seventies. Under the leadership of the great hooker Ken Kennedy, with the assistance of exceptional players like Mick Molloy and Barry Bresnihan, London Irish became a force to be reckoned with once more. In 1976-77 the Rugby Football Union introduced proper club merit tables and in that season London Irish finished first in the London Division with six wins out of seven. The Irish made visits to France and famously to South Africa in 1977 where the club became the first touring side to play so many mixed race teams.

In playing terms the eighties were another period of inconsistency. The first team struggled to find reliable form as work pressures made more demands on players' time making them unavailable for regular training and matches. Happily, at the lower levels and socially London Irish continued to thrive. In 1990-91 London Irish was promoted to the first division with a side containing four new Ireland internationals: Simon Geoghegan, Jim Staples, David Curtis and Rob Saunders, the youngest ever captain of his country at 22 years of age.

The harsh financial realities of playing at the top end of the game in England gradually became clear to all the country's senior clubs including London Irish in the early years of the decade. Operating losses mounted and but for the generosity of key benefactors at the time, the club would have struggled to survive.

The financial struggles were reflected on the pitch where London Irish failed to make any impact in the leagues despite employing the services of a number of high profile coaches. In 1999 London Irish merged with London Scottish and Richmond to form a new umbrella company to support the professional team which competes in the Guinness Premiership in England. An amateur club was also formed at this time, London Irish Amateur RFC, which remains in Sunbury. The club won its first piece of silverware in 2002 by beating Northampton Saints in the Powergen Cup final at Twickenham.

London Irish play out of the Madejski Stadium, in Reading. Madejski is the home of Reading F.C. and opened in August of 1998. The ground is a 24,250 all-seater capacity. Due to Reading playing in the Premier League, the Madejski Stadium's capacity may be upgraded in the future.^[1] The London Irish play all of their home games during the season at Madejski. The largest crowd for a London Irish match was for a game against the London Wasps on March 18, 2007 during the 2006-07 Guinness Premiership. The crowd of 22,648 is also the highest attendance for a regular season Guinness Premiership match.^[2]

2007-08 Guinness Premiership Table watch · edit · discuss
Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points for	Points against	Tries for	Tries against	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
Gloucester	7	6	0	1	214	131	25	16	2	1	27
Bath	7	6	0	1	174	123	21	10	2	0	26
Saracens	7	5	0	2	192	153	20	14	1	2	23
Leicester Tigers	7	5	0	2	165	128	15	11	0	1	21
Harlequins	7	4	0	3	171	156	19	19	3	2	21
Sale Sharks	7	4	0	3	147	136	15	14	2	1	19
Bristol	7	3	0	4	126	138	12	12	1	1	14
Newcastle Falcons	7	3	0	4	121	153	14	18	1	1	14
Wasps	7	2	1	4	14	141	15	13	1	2	13
London Irish	7	2	0	5	126	133	11	14	0	3	11
Leeds Carnegie	7	1	0	6	110	229	11	29	0	1	5
Worcester Warriors	7	0	1	6	118	191	13	21	0	2	4
Reference www.guinnesspremiership.com: Updated 2007-11-25 --- Current English Leagues

Nat. Position Player HK Danie Coetzee HK Stuart Mackie HK David Paice PR Clarke Dermody PR Casey Dunning PR Tonga Lea'aetoa PR Faan Rautenbach PR Tom Warren LK Bob Casey LK James Hudson LK Gary Johnson LK Nick Kennedy LK Kieran Roche FL Declan Danaher FL Olivier Magne FL Aidan McCullen FL Richard Thorpe FL Steffon Armitage N8 Juan Leguizamon N8 Phil Murphy

Nat. Position Player SH Warren Fury SH Paul Hodgson SH Peter Richards FH Shane Geraghty FH Jeremy Staunton CE Mike Catt CE Tim Curran CE Mark Ireland CE Seilala Mapusua CE Nils Mordt CE Bryan Rennie CE Richard Skuse CE Gonzalo Tiesi WG Tomas De Vedia WG Delon Armitage WG Topsy Ojo WG Dominic Shabbo WG Sailosi Tagicakibau FB Peter Hewat FB Eoghan Hickey

• Mike Catt (retired)
• Peter Richards

• Tomas De Vedia
• Juan Leguizamon
• Gonzalo Tiesi
• Casey Dunning
• Phil Murphy
• Shane Geraghty
• Olivier Magne
• Bob Casey
• Aidan McCullen
• Jeremy Staunton
• Seilala Mapusua
• Sailosi Tagicakibau
• Danie Coetzee
• Faan Rautenbach
• Tonga Lea'aetoa

Justin Bishop Jarrod Cunningham Jeremy Davidson Kieron Dawson Simon Geoghegan Robin Thompson

Mike Gibson David Humphreys Kevin O'Flanagan Malcolm O'Kelly Scott Staniforth Jim Staples

Tony O'Reilly Conor O'Shea Patrick Parfrey Robin Roe Dick Spring Brendan Venter

• European Challenge Cup:
  • Runners-up: 2006
• John Player Cup/Powergen Cup:
  • Champions: 2002
  • Runners-up: 1980

• 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.

• Official site
• Sunbury Centre
• Order Of The Odd-Shaped Ball
• The Craic
• London Irish Amateur RFC
• London Irish on Rugby15

• London Irish ERCrugby.com

v • d • e Guinness Premiership
2007-08 Teams	Bath · Bristol · Gloucester · Harlequins · Leeds Carnegie · Leicester Tigers · London Irish · London Wasps · Newcastle Falcons · Sale Sharks · Saracens · Worcester Warriors
Seasons	2005-06 · 2006-07 · 2007-08 · 2008-09

v • d • e Heineken Cup
2007-08 Teams	Benetton Treviso • Bourgoin • Bristol • Biarritz • Cardiff Blues • Clermont • Edinburgh • Gloucester • Glasgow Warriors • Harlequins • Leicester Tigers • Leinster • Llanelli Scarlets • London Irish • London Wasps • Munster • Newport Gwent Dragons • Ospreys • Perpignan • Saracens • Stade Français • Toulouse • Ulster • Viadana
Seasons	1995-96 • 1996-97 • 1997-98 • 1998-99 • 1999-00 • 2000-01 • 2001-02 • 2002-03 • 2003-04 • 2004-05 • 2005-06 • 2006-07 • 2007-08 • 2008-09

v • d • e Rugby union in England
Governing body	Rugby Football Union
National teams	England • England Saxons • 7's • U-21 • U-19 • Schoolboys • Women's • British and Irish Lions
Competitions	Guinness Premiership • EDF Energy Cup • National Division One • National Division Two • National Division Three North • National Division Three South • EDF Energy Trophy