With the Play-offs now only days away, London Irish Assistant Coach Declan Danaher is keeping his eyes firmly on this Sunday‘s game.

The Exiles head into the Play-offs as top seeds with 19 wins from 20 in the league and now face a Doncaster Knights double header. The team travel to Castle Park for the away Semi-final this Saturday, with the second leg at the Madejski on Saturday 6 May.

Danaher believes the Exiles’ trip to Doncaster two weeks ago will stand them in good stead.

“It was a great experience for the boys to get a general feel for the place and nice to finish our last league game on a good team performance. Hopefully that is going to stand us in good stead going back up on Sunday” said Danaher.

With no fixture last weekend, the players are well rested for the Play-off challenge.

“The rest has given us the chance to get the boys recovered. Our backroom staff have done a great job making sure the players are hissing for the start of next week. It’s just about getting the correct processes in place, which they have done brilliantly all season” he added.

The London Irish fan-favourite is treating the Play-offs as any other weekend and another game that needs to be won.

“Training has gone really well and this week we will prepare with the same intensity that we have for the previous 20 matches,” said the former London Irish Club Captain.

 “You take each week as it comes, I tend not to look too far ahead. I have done that all year.

“It is obviously going to be an incredibly tough task to go back up to Doncaster again.

“What we have asked of the boys is that they work hard and put in a performance which they are proud of, both individually and as a team on a Monday.”

Crucially, Danaher and the coaching team are not getting ahead of themselves. All that is on their minds is this Sunday, away in Doncaster. The home leg will come and then they take on the final if they have done the job in the semis first.

“I don’t tend to look beyond the end of the week. Maybe that is just my personality but you just tend to work towards the game at the weekend. If you get too far ahead of yourself you can become unstuck.”

Be the 16th man cheering the players on in the next step back to the Premiership. Tickets for the home Play-off Semi-final against Doncaster Knights on Saturday 6 May at the Madejski Stadium are on sale from www.lidirect.co.uk or by calling 0118 968 1016 #StrongerTogether.

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