O’Brien focused on performance

Sean O’Brien insists the London Irish squad will be focusing on their own performance against Bristol Bears and not any other results in the league - when the Exiles travel to league leaders on Saturday, with a top 8 spot still within reach.

The Exiles head to Ashton Gate in Round 22 sat in 9^th place, with the top 8 set to qualify for the European Rugby Champions Cup next season.

When commenting on the reaction to last week’s last-gasp loss to Wasps, O’Brien said: “A lot of the lads are learning about how to deal with these types of defeats, but we are getting in a position to win games, we just aren’t finishing them off.

“That is a positive side of it, an exciting side of it. When we do get it right, we play some nice rugby.

“We are all making sure we are all pointing in the same direction and aiming for where we want to get to. There is no point in saying that we aren’t disappointed with where we are in the league because we had higher aspirations.”

The final round of Gallagher Premiership action arrives on Saturday, and Sean is under no illusions regarding what is required.

“A win is what we need, there is no doubt about that. We have to fix a few this this week in training and make sure that we give the best account of ourselves come Saturday against the top team in the league.”

With Irish requiring other results to go their way, O’Brien made it very clear that the focus remains on their team’s performance above anything else.

“We won’t be worrying about any other results in the league, just concentrating on us. If we go out and execute the way that we know we can, we will be in a good place and be happy with the performance.

“The rest is out of our control; we can only play what is in front of us. Everyone is excited for what is the last game of the season, hopefully we go out on a good note.”

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