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Heineken Cup mustn’t disrupt our League form  The
Six Nations takes a back seat this weekend as the focus returns to club
rugby with London Irish preparing to lock horns with second-placed Leicester
Tigers at the Madejski Stadium.
After a week’s break the Exiles returned refreshed and focused to
training last Monday and they will be hoping to pick up where they left
off last month.
Irish are currently unbeaten in 2008 and haven’t lost at home in
the Guinness Premiership since October 5. Their last defeat actually came
at the hands of Leicester when they were defeated 25-17 at the end of
December.
Flanker Declan Danaher has been a vital cog in the Irish machine this
season and feels that although the break could disturb the flow of the
side they can overcome Marcelo Loffreda’s side on Sunday afternoon.
“The break has disrupted us a little,” he admits. “We’d
built-up a bit of momentum, winning 10 of our last 12 games and were playing
very well. Then all of a sudden it’s two weeks off. We’re
having to start from scratch again really. Most of us haven’t touched
a rugby ball for two weeks as we’ve been away at camp and lads have
been on holiday. It’s a bit like pre-season really.
“It’s a massive game this weekend. Leicester are a quality
side. We were disappointed to lose against them back in December. We played
really well but ended up losing 25-17 so we just missed out on a bonus
point as well.
“Since that game though we’ve been on a very good run and
we want to build on that. We know we have the beating of them. We want
to get higher up the table and a win on Saturday will do that.”
Leicester head into the game with an extra week’s preparation than
their Irish counterparts. They beat League leaders Gloucester in Kingsholm
last weekend and will have no fear of travelling down to Reading. But
this season the Madejski Stadium has become something of a fortress with
the Exiles winning eight of their 10 home games and sides of the calibre
of Perpignan, Sale and Gloucester all returning home empty-handed.
Irish will face Perpignan again in the Heineken Cup quarter-final in April
and despite being almost two months away the hype is already building
up. It’s an occasion Danaher is looking forward to but warns that
Irish must start to climb the League table or else risk missing out on
the competition altogether next year.
“At the end of the day if you don’t finish in the top-six
of the League you won’t be playing Heineken Cup rugby the following
season. That has to be our main goal. We’ve really enjoyed the last
two years and we want it to continue. I think playing in the competition
has also helped our home form. We’ve developed a different mindset.
If you win your home games you’ll always be in with a shout.
“The thing with the Heineken Cup group stages is that every second
or third week you’ve a League game thrown in. We found it quite
hard to concentrate on our League form. But now we’ve six or seven
League games before Perpignan so it’s easier to focus. We need to
go out and win and hopefully that will lift us up the table a little bit
more.” |
