London Irish take positives from South Africa trip
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London Irish were disappointed to come away with nothing from their Heineken Champions Cup Round 2 clash at DHL Stormers – but they can be proud of their efforts in South Africa, according to captain Matt Rogerson .
The Gallagher Premiership side offered stern resistance to the United Rugby Championship (URC) champions in Cape Town on Saturday, but ultimately went down 34-14 in their second successive pool stage defeat.
“There was a lot of good stuff in there,” Rogerson said. “In the first half I think we defended pretty valiantly to go in with the score 10-0 at half-time with around 30% possession. We had to defend an awful lot.
“We worked really hard to keep ourselves in the game and we had a few chances at the end that we left out there, which could have made it a different result.
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“We are a group that says we will never give up. You can see how we fought right to the end there and as I say, we put up a fight throughout the game.
“If we could have executed the chances that went begging there towards the end, it could have been a much more positive outcome.”
DHL Stormers went on to snatch the bonus-point try in the final play, resulting in a scoreline which perhaps didn’t reflect Irish’s competitiveness for much of the contest.
“Coming over to South Africa to face a side like Stormers, we expect a physical contest – especially up front, the scrum and in the maul. They’re a great mauling team,” Rogerson added.
“We knew we had to up our level there and for large parts of the game, I think we matched Stormers. But still, we’re really disappointed to come up short.”
