In the world of rugby union it is a sombre time for fans and players at London Irish, as the club languish in the depths of a losing streak.

But could this be the face, if not of a revival, then at least of some life blossoming in the Irish camp?

I spend a bit of time on the online message boards used by London Irish fans, either advertising our coverage of the team (whom I've now adopted at the cost of a rather nice fleece jacket), or just checking up on the discussion between supporters.

I also, separately, work quite hard to improve coverage of women's sport, and have done quite a bit with Reading's women's rugby club, so I keep a look out for any reference to women's rugby.

All this means a message board thread entitled 'London Irish Womens Team PLEASE HELP' was bound to intrigue me. I'll let Neale, the man writing it, explain:

"Last Saturday I went clubbing in London and met a great girl. She gave me her number at the end of the night so we could arrange to meet up next weekend. To my horror, when I tried the number today it didn't work. [But] she was 19 and told me she plays for London Irish women's team.

"Can anyone help me? Where do they play, does anyone know the team or the coaches? I apologise that this isn't strictly rugby related, but I really like this girl, and this is the only thing I can think of to try and contact her."

Rugby-related or not, this has become an immensely popular talking point with online fans of London Irish - click here to take a look for yourself. Since Neale wrote his begging letter late on Tuesday it has received more replies than any of the preceding 30 topics on the message board - his letter has, at the time of writing, been viewed over 300 times.

And what sleuths the London Irish fans are proving to be!

So far, in the space of two days, they reckon they have the girl's name and her MySpace account, with accompanying photos (from whence the one above has arrived). Neale tried to help where he could, with recollections like these:

"She and her German step-mum implied to me that they were strippers. Her step-mum borrowed my mobile briefly to ring someone and I thought that number could help me out.

"I texted it saying, 'You know a German girl who knows this Irish girl,' etc, but whoever he or she was didn't want to help me. They just texted back saying 'I'm not her PA.'"

The breakthrough came when a man named Paul somehow - God only knows how - found her MySpace account, which you can view here. Her name is Roisin, which certainly chimes with the London Irish connection, and someone had left a message on her MySpace page about her liking rugby and going out to a club. It all made sense!

Lovelorn Neale kept us waiting for almost an entire day after this revelation before replying, but when he did, how we all felt for him:

"Well well well, I didn't think I had much chance in finding her. Thanks Paul!

"I thought I'd try messaging her before I posted on here again. I messaged her last night and she has logged on [to her MySpace account] today so she would have read it - but she didn't reply.

"I feel a bit silly now. She's not interested. I guess I can safely assume she put her number in wrong deliberately..."

At least he had the decency to wish London Irish well against Northampton this weekend. After all, most Irish fans are feeling about as dejected and pessimistic as our Neale.