The last home game of the season coincided with our celebration of St Patrick's Day and our Wild Geese gave us 64 reasons to drown the shamrock in style!

Hazelwood was bursting at the seams and full of activity and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon where the the various London Irish tribes came together to celebrate being part of this wonderful club.
Thanks to the generous support of Clonakilty foods over 150 London Irish folk and guests sat down to a traditional Irish brunch to get us ready for a great display of grassroots rugby. A big vote of thanks must go to the dynamic duo of Gerry Gallaher and Claire McCormack for organising these lunches throughout the season. The club has welcomed over 1100 patrons to our lunches since last September – no mean feat for a community rugby club.

Having trounced our opposition Hemel Hempstead, the Geese joined with the rest of the gang to celebrate to the tunes of the MacManus brothers. The party atmosphere was amazing and everybody was in great form a truly fitting way to celebrate Saint Patrick’s day.

Although many of the Emeralds team were at the lunch they too secured a hard fought victory over a pugnacious Thurrock team on Sunday. The entire weekend was truly successful for the entire club - the Colts won the Surrey Cup and the u12's Tour made it to Dublin for their tour despite the closure of Heathrow.

What was a great weekend for our club reinforces for me the special nature of London Irish. This is best reflected in an adaptation of St Patrick's prayer which goes like this:-

London Irish be with me,
London Irish before me,
London Irish behind me,
London Irish in me,
London Irish beneath me,
London Irish above me,
London Irish on my right,
London Irish on my left,
London Irish when I lie down,
London Irish when I arise.
London Irish when I sit down.

For photos of the day see our Club Album.