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Irish look to build morale London Irish will be striving
to get back to winning ways when fellow strugglers Bristol visit the Madejski
Stadium on Sunday.
Irish suffered their third defeat in a row last weekend when they slipped
to a 19-16 defeat in Bath — a run that pales in comparison to their
start to 2008 where they won seven games in a row.
A top-four finish now looks out of sight for Brian Smith’s side
but victory this weekend is paramount in order to restore some confidence
ahead of the eagerly-anticipated Heineken Cup quarter-final with Perpignan
on Saturday week.
“I imagine it’s mathematically possible to get into the top
four but whether it’s really achievable is another matter,”
admitted forwards coach Toby Booth after Saturday’s defeat. “We
will shift our attention now to getting a Heineken Cup qualification place.”
When Booth was asked if there were any injuries he replied: “Only
the ones Brian Smith is inflicting.”
Irish opted to play against the stiff breeze for the opening half at the
Recreation Ground and they would have been confident of overturning the
five-point interval deficit after Michael Stephenson went over for the
hosts. Yet after just three second-half minutes they conceded another
try when Matt Banaham touched down in the corner. Eoghan Hickey —
who kicked all Irish’s points in the opening half — then missed
two penalties as Irish struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
Substitute Ross Broadfoot gave Irish hope with a try nine minutes from
time and Declan Danaher was denied at the death by a last-ditch tackle
from Peter Short.
Booth said: “It was a tight game, we knew it would be. We created
chances but didn’t capitalise on them. In this very competitive
championship, if you don’t kick your goals you get punished.
“The Bath boys said to me afterwards that they found it rather fatiguing.
If I’m honest, for the second week running we played well with the
lions’ share of possession but came up short.”
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