London Irish

The squad that played Racing Métro 92 at Parc des Princes in 1899.

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.[3]

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

Brentford Community Stadium Under Construction.

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.

London Irish playing at the Madejski Stadium with 22,648 people in attendance.

A match v Ulster in 2006.

London Irish's line out against Leicester Tigers.

London Irish drummers and fans at the Madejski Stadium.

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[4] 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.[5]

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.[6] 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.[7] This was later confirmed.[8]

London Irish Amateur logo.

The club also hosts London Irish Amateur RFC (a separate legal entity) 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.[9]

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.[10]

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.[11]

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 principal 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.

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[12][13]

The London Irish squad for the 2020–21 season is:[14]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Matt Cornish Hooker England Agustín Creevy Hooker Argentina Motu Matu'u Hooker Samoa Lovejoy Chawatama Prop Zimbabwe Allan Dell Prop Scotland Harry Elrington Prop England Will Goodrick-Clarke Prop England Ollie Hoskins Prop Australia Sekope Kepu Prop Australia Adam Coleman Lock Australia Steve Mafi Lock Tonga Andrei Mahu Lock Moldova George Nott Lock England Rob Simmons Lock Australia Jack Cooke Back row Ireland Blair Cowan (c) Back row Scotland Isaac Curtis-Harris Back row England Seán O'Brien Back row Ireland Matt Rogerson (c) Back row England Albert Tuisue Back row Fiji

Player Position Union Rory Brand Scrum-half England Ben Meehan Scrum-half Australia Nick Phipps (c) Scrum-half Australia Jacob Atkins Fly-half England Theo Brophy-Clews Fly-half England Paddy Jackson (c) Fly-half Ireland Terrence Hepetema Centre New Zealand Phil Cokanasiga Centre England Curtis Rona Centre Australia Matt Williams Centre England Ollie Hassell-Collins Wing England Charlton Kerr Wing England Ben Loader Wing England Waisake Naholo Wing New Zealand Tom Homer Fullback England Tom Parton Fullback England James Stokes Fullback England

Academy squad

The London Irish academy squad is:[15]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Player Position Union Ben Atkins Hooker England Joe Vajner Hooker England Luke Green Prop England Tarek Haffar Prop England Chunya Munga Lock England Lucas Brooke Back row England George Davis Back row England Ben Donnell Back row England Izaiha Moore-Aiono Back row England Marcus Rhodes Back row England Josh Smart Back row England

Player Position Union Caolan Englefield Scrum-half Ireland Rory Morgan Scrum-half England Theo Smerdon Fly-half England William Joseph Centre England Michael Dykes Wing England Alexander Harmes Wing England

First Team Coaching

• Director of Rugby: Declan Kidney
• Head coach: Les Kiss
• Assistant Coach Brad Davis
• Assistant Coach: Declan Danaher
• Assistant Coach: Corniel van Zyl
• Assistant Forwards Coach: Ross McMillan
• Assistant Forwards Coach: Jon Fisher
• Head of strength and conditioning: Robert Palmer

Academy

• Academy Manager: Patrick O'Grady
• Academy Backs Coach: James Lightfoot-Brown
• Academy Forwards Coach: Jon Fisher
• AASE Manager: Richard Pryor
• Assistant Academy strength and conditioning coach: Alex Dreghorn

• 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.
• A main character in the book, The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edward D Malone, a journalist, was also a player on the London Irish and scored a try.
• YouTube phenomenon KSI (entertainer) made videos with London Irish at Hazelwood with Rule'm Sports.

• Rugby union in London
• London Cornish
• London Scottish
• London Welsh
• Richmond
• Rugby union in the United States
• Hazelwood

• Official Website
• Official Supporters Website
• Sunbury Centre
• Order of The Odd-Shaped Ball
• The Craic
• London Irish Amateur RFC
• London Irish on Rugby15
• ERC Rugby London Irish
• Premiership Rugby Official Website