Shelford's selection slip exposed by Exiles

London Irish 32 Saracens 1

"Well, why not?" Wayne Shelford had asked when invited to explain his decision to make nine changes to a winning side. Why not, eh? The Saracens coach now has so many answers to his own question, 32 of them to be precise, that it may be some time before he pulls a similar stunt in selection. There was nothing much he could do about his side's trauma in the scrummage, given the injuries to David Flatman and Christian Califano, but by tinkering with his line-out, his half-backs, his midfield and his wide unit, he left himself open to all manner of indignities and suffered the full range.

In beating Bristol and Bath in their opening outings, Saracens had let slip only one line-out on their own throw – a fact of which the London Irish analysts were acutely conscious. What Conor O'Shea and company could not have expected was Shelford's relegation of Stuart Hooper and Craig Yandell to the bench and his promotion of Abdel Benazzi and Kieran Roche in their stead. Benazzi, in particular, is nobody's fool, but the old spring-loaded heels have rusted a little down the years. By the time the home locks, Ryan Strudwick and Bob Casey, had finished burgling the Sarries line-out, there was nothing left to steal.

Armed with a plethora of prime possession, the Exiles ran their opponents into the Thames Valley dirt. But for some spectacularly profligate finishing, they would have been 40 points up at the break; as it was, they put themselves out of sight by the interval with tries from the scuttling Barry Everitt and the long-striding Paul Sackey. The latter score was a top-drawer job, Sackey taking advantage of a defensive turn-over with a chip-and-chase rampage up the narrowest of touchline channels.

Strudwick, a quiet man whose leadership gifts can scream the house down, then opened up a 22-point gap by stretching over to the left of the posts nine minutes into the second period. The hunt was now on for the bonus point, and the Exiles nailed that down in the final few seconds of normal time when Kieron Dawson, that liveliest of breakaway forwards, outpaced Richard Hill over 40 metres to swallow-dive in at the sticks. Kevin Sorrell's injury-time reply, converted with rather bad grace by a strop-soaked Andy Goode, was irrelevant in the extreme.

For 10 minutes or so early on, the proceedings were genuinely competitive: Ben Russell, the young Saracens No 8, made a startling surge into Irish territory, and Niki Little put the visitors ahead with a fine penalty from distance. But when Everitt levelled it from in front at the end of the first quarter and then capitalised on some smart short-side work by Pieter Rossouw and Chris Sheasby to claim the opening try, the balance of the contest shifted wholly towards the hosts. They were quicker, better disciplined and more alive to the possibilities in front of them. In the end, it was not even close.

According to Conor O'Shea, their director of rugby, the Irish had engaged in a profound bout of soul-searching following their defeat at Leeds the previous week. They need not have worried unduly, for they are far too capable a side to struggle for long. Naka Drotske, their outstanding South African hooker, is one of the Premiership's more effective front-rowers at present, and Casey's arrival from Leinster has introduced some devil to the engine-room mix. If Dawson stays fit, if Declan Danaher puts recent representative disappointments down to experience and comes back the stronger for it, they will be up to scratch in the back row, too.

As for Saracens, this was a heavy fall and Shelford knew it. Time for some tough talking, perhaps? "It's time to get on the piss," replied the great All Black No 8 in time-honoured fashion. "A lot of good things come out of a session in the pub, and that's the way I plan to play this one." An interesting approach, to be sure. Almost as interesting as changing two-thirds of your team as reward for beating the pants off two sets of rivals.

London Irish: Tries Everitt, Sackey, Strudwick, Dawson; Conversions Everitt 3; Penalties Everitt 2. Saracens: Try Sorrell; Conversion Goode; Penalty Little.

London Irish: M Horak; P Sackey, J Bishop, G Appleford, P Rossouw; B Everitt (M Mapletoft, 83), D Edwards (K Barrett, 72); N Hatley (M Worsley, 46), N Drotske (A Flavin, 76), R Hardwick (P Durant, 60), R Strudwick (capt), R Casey (K Burke, 83), D Danaher, K Dawson, C Sheasby (P Gustard, 60).

Saracens: A Winnan (T Castaignède, 64); R Haughton (A Goode, 51), B Johnston, K Sorrell, T Shanklin; N Little, K Bracken (capt); J Ross, M Cairns, J Marsters, A Benazzi (S Hooper, 60), K Roche (C Yandel, 52), K Chesney, R Hill, B Russell.

Referee: C White (Gloucestershire).