Blair Cowan insists London Irish are focussed ahead of the visit of Aviva Premiership Champions Northampton Saints to Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

The Scotland International has received plaudits for his performances so far this season, including the victory away against Leicester Tigers at the weekend playing in the Irish back row alongside Kieran Low and Luke Narraway.

Currently sitting sixth in the Premiership table, the London Irish openside flanker has said that the squad are not getting too far ahead of themselves and it was back to the drawing board earlier in the week to prepare for Saints.

“It’s been good, obviously it is great to be training off the back of the win but there is still plenty to work on. We’ve reviewed it all and we are ready for the weekend." Cowan said.

Irish came very close to defeating Saracens in Reading two weeks ago when they were spurred on by a their passionate home supporters, something Cowan admits gave the squad a massive boost.

“Playing at home this weekend is a bonus for us. We have an amazing supporter base and that is the key for us, having that faith behind us made a big difference against Saracens, it was just a shame we couldn’t bring it home for them. It would be great to see that support again on Saturday.”

It is a tough challenge facing London Irish this weekend. Jim Mallinder’s side won the Premiership final at the death against Saracens in May and have started this season in a similar vein of form.

“They are the Champions for a reason, they’ve got the full package. They are very strong across the board. We have done our homework and hopefully we can implement our game plan on them on Saturday.

Irish have had a fantastic start to the season given that after Saturday’s match they would have played the top four from last season in their first five fixtures.

“The group is focussed. That is the best word to describe us at the moment. We are not going to get ahead of ourselves. We enjoyed the win at Leicester but quickly put that behind us and now it is all about the task in hand. Things can quickly turnaround, so it is all about looking at the big picture and not just where we are after four rounds.”

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