London Irish: Club ready to finally 'open doors' to new community with St Patrick's Party

London Irish fans have enjoyed their first full season of being able to watch the side at Brentford Community Stadium

Sometimes the best "house-warming" parties take place when you have fully moved all the fixtures and fittings in - and London Irish will be hoping on Saturday that proves to be true.

Two years ago, Irish made their long-awaited move back to the capital a little earlier than expected as the first Coronavirus lockdown began.

Their farewell season in Reading was curtailed as all professional sport went into hibernation in spring 2020 and their annual St Patrick's Party fixture against Northampton Saints was one of the first to be postponed.

The eventual behind-closed-doors relocation to the Brentford Community Stadium last season meant some of Irish's "house-warming" plans had to be put on hold as the world continued to adjust to the pandemic with most fixtures played with empty stands and no fans.

But as crowds have been allowed to return unrestricted this season, London Irish have seemingly thrived on the atmosphere, pushing for potential honours on three fronts on the pitch while off it, their community impact has taken hold on its new surroundings.

On Saturday, they will get the chance to fully celebrate the St Patrick's Party fixture for the first time in three seasons with Northampton once more the main guests.

Sean O'Brien's experience and involvement has helped London Irish to sixth in the Premiership

"I'm really looking forward to it," former British and Irish Lion, and now Exiles back row, Sean O'Brien told BBC Radio London.

"The atmosphere has been electric for home games in recent weeks so hopefully the occasion will also push ticket sales up even further before Saturday and make it a brilliant day.

"We're playing a nice brand of rugby when we get all our parts moving. We've got a nice balance between forwards and backs and hopefully we can keep evolving that.

"It's never the finished article, it's always being worked on, but it's been nice to see the sun out during training this week and it's certainly put a kick in all our steps."

While the actual St Patrick's holiday may have been earlier this month, the chance to capitalise on the glorious early spring weather O'Brien mentions and the window after the Six Nations should mean the biggest crowd so far for a rugby union fixture at Brentford.

The day itself will also extend beyond the stadium and across the other side of the Hammersmith flyover to Gunnersbury Park. More than 1,600 youngsters from under-sevens upwards will compete in a mini-rugby festival and get the chance to try to emulate the likes of Irish academy graduates Ollie Hassell-Collins, Tom Parton and Tom Pearson.

"It's a brilliant location for it - just two minutes' walk from the stadium," Irish's head of community Matt Heeks told BBC Sport.

"We've got 74 teams attending and we'll all be there from 04:30 GMT setting up and get cracking with matches from 09:30 until 12:30.

"It should be a great time for all the age groups and some of the Irish players will be there and then later taking some of the youngsters into the stadium to attend the Northampton game.

"They'll all get on the pitch before kick-off to form a guard of honour which should be a massive occasion and experience for many of them being in that stadium for the first time."

Five schools from the local community will also perform a rendition of Fields Of Athenry on the pitch further boosting the numbers involved in the day.

London Irish players Facundo Gigena, Benhard van Rensburg and Kyle Rowe have handed out honours at community festivals already this season

Since moving to Brentford, London Irish's community catchment area has expanded from Berkshire, Hampshire and Middlesex into inner London. Its coaching involvement has added transitions between schools and the grassroots game at clubs a little further afield, including Southwark Tigers RFC.

"We're looking after 12 schools a week - around 300 children in terms of our coaching delivery - and we're also running festivals in those schools around every three or four weeks," Heeks said.

"At Southwark, we've had around 25 transitions from the schools where we've introduced those youngsters to the club game and we hope it's the start of a healthy relationship.

"There's some real athletes with some great skills there. But, for me, it's about getting youngsters to enjoy their rugby and keeping them involved in something that helps them learn some life skills too."

Away from the week-to-week work, Saturday will provide the opportunity for Hicks and his team to celebrate the breadth and depth of their influence in one place.

"This is our biggest festival of the year, but it's also one of several events we run through the calendar," he added.

"We'll be showcasing what we can do as a club to our community and if we make a success of it then, hopefully, those schools, clubs, groups will come back and engage with London Irish in the future and that's really what we want to get out of the day.

"On the pitch, the senior players are doing a terrific job," said 34-year-old Heeks, himself a former London Scottish and Wasps scrum-half. "That makes it an easy sell for me in my current role.

"Win, lose or draw, they put on a tremendous display and performance.

"This is another opportunity to show the community what this club is all about and we're fully-booked for the festival. We've actually had to turn teams away.

"Hopefully off the back of it, we'll get youngsters and their families coming back again and again to get involved."

Listen to full match commentary of London Irish v Northampton Saints on BBC Radio London and BBC Radio Northampton via the BBC Sport website and app from 15:00 GMT Saturday, 26 March.

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