London Irish’s director of rugby Declan Kidney spoke to the media after the game, following his side’s 20-6 defeat in Round 7 of the Gallagher Premiership.

Kidney spoke of many key moments that took place, including the impact of a going down to 13 men for a period in the first half.

“It was a pivotal part of the game, but there were several in the match” said Kidney.

“The first 20 minutes we can look at things that are within our control. We played a lot of that first 20 minutes in our own half.

“The second quarter, we got ourselves into an attacking position, reverse penalty yellow card, followed by a red card was obviously going to make a difference, but then our 13 men made a massive effort in the 10 minutes before half-time not to concede any more scores. I think in the third quarter we can take a look at some of areas of play to that are well within our control.”

The effort and endeavour shown is a huge positive for Kidney and something that he doesn’t take as a given.

“I wouldn’t have a bad word to say about the boys out on the pitch today, I think their effort was massive and I would never take that for granted. It shows the fight that is within them and it is something that we wanted to improve on from last week’s effort.

“That is the one thing you can’t coach and that is why I know it will turn for us. We are going into an exceptionally challenging month now and we knew it would take a while for this to fully come together, but we will do that as long as we have the effort that we had here today. It is always a privilege to work with fellas that are going to give you that level of effort.”

London Irish are back at Madejski Stadium on Sunday 5 January with Exeter Chiefs the visitors. For tickets please click here.

 

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