London Irish Rugby

Brian Smith, the Director of Rugby for the Aviva Premiership Rugby Union side the London Irish has admitted that his side’s struggles are due to the fact that they are yet to become the finished article and are, at best, a work in progress. Speaking ahead of a crucial Amlin Challenge Cup match against fellow Aviva Premiership rivals Gloucester Rugby, Smith mentioned that his and his side’s main challenge will be to end the four match losing streak that they have endured by beating The Cherry Whites and restore some pride and confidence into the players.

He mentioned that his side needs to become much more confident and has to find that ruthless streak in order to turn defeats into victories. Speaking to BBC Radio Berkshire, Smith mentioned that although they want to outscore Gloucester Rugby, the London Irish also want to prove that they are an extremely difficult side to get on the score sheet against, and is hopeful that the things they have worked for in training to shore up the defense will come in handy during the match.

Saturday night’s match at Kingsholm, the home of Gloucester Rugby will give The Exiles and immediate chance of exacting revenge on The Cherry Whites for their come from behind 29-22 victory over them last weekend, and Smith admits revenge is a factor that is driving the players in his team. He added that Gloucester will be in the home straight considering their confidence will be sky high after a brilliant come from behind victory against his team.

He mentioned that the London Irish will be making some changes to the side and he is hopeful that these changes will ultimately get the result for them, adding that a victory is of utmost importance for the confidence of the team.

Brian Smith, the Director of Rugby of the Aviva Premiership Rugby Union club the London Irish has challenged his team to step up their game, particularly their tackling ahead of Sunday’s Aviva Premiership fixture against the Exeter Chiefs. The Exiles’ boss is happy that his side has vastly improved in converting set piece movements as well as their driving but their weakness in tackling the opponents and keeping them out of the danger zone still has him on his toes.

But he believes that the league is just a few match weeks old and there is still time for his players to improve their tackling. Speaking to the media, the boss stated that the team has an extremely talented collection of players. He mentioned that he has tried to move the team forward by putting some hard edge into the scrum halves and he believes that the driving of the London Irish is on par with the best teams in the league without a doubt.

He then mentioned the team needs to take their tackling as the next big step forward. He mentioned that the team needs to do a lot better in tackling both in attack and in defense. Smith further added that the team had had issues with defending early on in the season but they have addressed those issues now – the team is scoring two plus tries in almost every match and they have also managed to bring down the number of tries conceded to two on average.

Smith, however, is not happy with that improvement and mentioned that if the London Irish could sort out their tackling, they can easily bring down the number of tries conceded to one and that would drastically increase their production, which will hold the team in good stead in the long run.