Kiss content after Connacht victory

London Irish Head Coach Les Kiss was a satisfied man following Friday’s pre-season friendly victory against Connacht Rugby.

Irish, who led 26-0 at the break at The Sportsgound, eventually ran out comfortable 47-14 winners in Galway.

Reflecting on the Exiles’ final friendly of the pre-season campaign, Kiss said: “A win at Connacht at any time is good.

“It’s pleasing - a win is always pleasing.

“We stayed on track to our plan for most of the night.

“We took our chances well, going into the break with a comfortable lead and then saw out a good victory in the second half.”

He added: “I thought we managed the game well.

“The thing that gives me confidence, although you’re always wary as a coach, was our second half performance.

“We made a lot of changes and had to fight hard for the win, but the fire was there in the performance.

“If we’re really fair dinkum about the game, we let ourselves down defensively in small patches with a few simple errors, but overall it was a good night for us.”

With one eye on the Exiles’ Round 1 fixture against Worcester Warriors next Saturday, Kiss concluded: “We won’t get carried away, but there’s a lot of good things for us to take away from this game ahead of next weekend.

“We’ve had a solid pre-season, the majority of our players are fit, and we’re looking forward to Worcester now.”