'We weren't surprised' - Les Kiss reacts to Henry Arundell try to 'end all tries'
London Irish head coach Les Kiss was not surprised by an astonishing individual try scored by teenager Henry Arundell in their 19-18 European Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat to Toulon.
While the Exiles went out in agonising fashion, Arundell claimed the champagne moment with a try from just short of 100 metres that will be talked about for years to come.
The 19-year old received a pass just in front of his own try-line in the 75th minute before embarking on a swerving jet-heeled counter-attack that saw him cut through the entire Toulon team and go all the way to the right corner for the score.
Had fly-half Paddy Jackson nailed the difficult touchline conversion Irish would have pinched the victory, but his effort sailed well wide.
Australian Kiss said of Arundell: “He makes people make defensive errors. He is a good lad, a level-headed lad.
“We weren’t surprised when that happened, we know what’s possible with him.
“For Henry, Will Joseph, Tom Pearson, Juan Gonzalez… there’s four young guys who have got a taste of European rugby in one of the toughest cauldrons. That’s great for us and it was great to see Henry do what he did today.”
Kiss rued errors “in the middle period” of a match which had seen the Exiles go into a 10-0 lead in as many minutes after a blistering start was rewarded with a pushover try by number eight Albert Tuisue.
But while the visitors continued to frustrate the Stade Felix Mayol crowd with an organised and committed performance, they were unable to prevent Toulon from gradually gaining the upper hand.
A try from captain Charles Ollivon on the hour mark was crucial, with fly-half Louis Carbonel adding the rest of the hosts’ points with the boot.
Irish were left to rue yellow cards for hooker Agustin Creevy and Gonzalez in the 36th and 50th minutes respectively, Creevy’s for pulling the hair of Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth and Gonzalez for a high tackle on Carbonel.
Kiss added: “We made a good start, probably the middle period we made too many errors. The penalty count was too high in that period and it put us on the back foot.
“We tried to finish strongly, but we just couldn’t get there in the end.
“They are a tough team on their home turf and you have to give them credit. They got done what they needed to get done and squeezed us there at the end.
“There were a couple of things we could have done better but I was happy with the way we went at the game and attacked it.
“We just couldn’t hold their power out.”
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Agreed. As a Saffa I have much respect for the ABs. I also have to say given any option I would ONLY prefer to lose to ABs. To lose to England is probably the most embarrassing think to happen to either of us.
There was a time when both of us lost to England and we both hated it. Thankfully those days are behind us. Kudos to you guys, kudos to ABs. But dear old BS seems to hate us Boks. No idea why.
Go to commentsI got the sense that holding him to it was kickback from SB and the rfu smarting at being jilted quite so soon, so unexpectedly and so publicly.
Seem to remember that they spoke to Gustard before appointing Joe and you really have to think he would have come in at a higher level?
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