REACTION: Man of the match Botha delighted with victory

Arno Botha was a trojan warrior at the heart of London Irish’s back-row, the South African delivering a man of the match display during a 22-9 victory over Worcester Warriors in the Aviva Premiership yesterday.

Botha, 26, who joined Irish from the Blue Bulls at the turn of this year, drove his team on to secure crucial Premiership points and close the gap at the foot of the table.

“It was a very good win for us and we thoroughly deserved the victory,” Botha told BT Sport on receiving his man of the match memento.

“I think we’ve been quite unlucky not to get some wins on the board in previous games, and we’ll take confidence from this result.

“When I arrived here a month ago, it was immediately clear to me how hard the boys were working in training.”

Irish led 13-6 at the break, with Botha pinpointing the early exchanges of the second half as a key stage in the contest.

“The first 10 minutes of the second half were very important and it was crucial that we kept our focus immediately from the restart,” said Botha.

“We know that things aren’t completely in our hands, but we’ll focus on our next game and work hard to get the scalps.”

London Irish’s next home game is the St Patrick’s Party against Gloucester on Saturday 24 March (kick-off 3pm), with tickets available from £4 for under 13s and £26 for adults by calling the Ticket Office on 0118 968 1016 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturday 9am to noon) or online at  www.lidirect.co.uk .