London Irish


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 has 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 the club competed in the RFU Championship, winning the league both times. The club also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, until the tournament's 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 played its home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire for 20 years. However, at the end of the 2019–20 season they will move to Brentford Community Stadium in Brentford, West London. In the mean time, they will temporarily ground-share with Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop.
London Irish won its first major trophy in 2002, claiming the Powergen Cup. Irish also reached the final of the 2009 English Premiership, narrowly losing 10–9 to Leicester Tigers at Twickenham Stadium. 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.
The club's mascot is an Irish Wolfhound character called Digger.

History

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 benefited from the early recruitment of vet and Irish international Louis Magee.

Academy

London Irish manages its own academy, with players such as Nick Kennedy, Topsy Ojo, Anthony Watson, Delon Armitage and Jonathan Joseph having gone on to play for the senior side and be internationally capped. Ojo retired at the end of the 2018–19 season having made 301 appearances for the club

Stadium

From the 2020–21 season, London Irish will play at the Brentford Community Stadium, in Brentford, Greater London. The stadium is the home of Brentford FC. The ground is a 17,250 all-seater capacity stadium. All London Irish home matches are generally played at Brentford.
with 22,648 people in attendance.
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Prior to 2020, the club played at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, Berkshire for 20 seasons between 2000 and March 2019 when the 2019–20 season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The largest crowd for a London Irish match was for a game against London Wasps on 15 March 2008 during the 2007–08 season. The crowd of 23,790 was also the highest attendance for a regular season Premiership Rugby match until December 2008.
On 12 March 2016 London Irish played their first home Premiership match abroad, 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.
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. 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. This was later confirmed.

London Irish Amateur

The club also hosts London Irish Amateur RFC 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.

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.
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.

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.

Current kit

The kit is currently supplied by BLK. The 2019-20 green home kit is made from Exotek fabric and features gel grippers on the front and gripper tape at the seams. The jersey also features a sectioned crew neck, club colour detailing on the sleeve and a silicone gel finish on the club crest.
The club's principle sponsor Powerday, appears on the front centre on a broad red lined white stripe. Above this, the club's crest appears on the left chest and 9 Group on the right chest. Other club sponsors Pump Technology and Keltbray appear on the back. The playing shorts are plain featuring only the logo of the club and manufacturer.
The away kit is white and features a similar design with powerday appearing on a broad green stripe.

Season summaries

Gold background denotes champions
Silver background denotes runners-up
Pink background denotes relegated
* Finished first in pool but did not progress to the quarter-final. Their place was taken by Brive

Club honours

London Irish

The London Irish squad for the remainder of the 2019–20 season is:

Academy squad

The London Irish academy squad is:

Club staff

First Team Coaching
Academy

England

Ireland

Argentina