Exiles’ Canadian back rower Jebb Sinclair wants his side to continue their winning form at the Madejski this weekend against Grenoble as they look to make it 5 wins from 5 in Reading.

Players and management have spoken about making the Madejski Stadium a fortress and a difficult place for visiting teams to visit and Sinclair says the supporters have played a big part in that in recent weeks.

“It was one of the things we spoke about at the start of the season, trying to turn the Madejski into a fortress. We saw what happened at Gloucester a few weeks ago, the Shed kept them in that game and they came back to win it. We want the same sort of thing at the Madejski where before teams come into the ground they know, regardless of our away from, that we are tough to play at home and it is a tough place to come and win at, so that is something we certainly want to continue.”

Irish supporters endured five minutes of edge of the seat action before Luke Narraway won the most important penalty so far this season to ensure Tom Coventry’s side go into this European break on the back of four Premiership points.

“We made it hard on ourselves in the last quarter having been 20-0 after 50 minutes. We probably should have pushed on from there, but obviously looking back on the game we almost ruined it. Luckily we held out after five good minutes of defence on our own line and got away with the four points.”

The flanker received much praise for his performance following Sunday’s battle, but was pipped to the Man of the Match post by in-form winger Alex Lewington. 

The big Canadian goes on to say: “It is amazing what you can accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit. For someone like me, the better I do my job the more space there is for guys like Alex. So if we can do the ground work, it gives our backs the room they need to do their stuff.”

With two pool games left to play in the Challenge Cup, there is everything to play for this weekend. London Irish, Grenoble and Edinburgh are all still in contention for a quarter final place and Sinclair knows a win against Grenoble will give Irish every chance. However, he is in no doubt of the task his side face on Saturday.

“They have a good squad, we probably should have got at least a draw in the round two fixture, but they worked it well to get the win. You need to win your home games in this competition and we want to keep going at the MadStad, so it is a game we need to win to give ourselves a shot at going top of the pool.”

Tickets for this crucial fixture are available by clicking here or by calling the ticket office on 0118 9681 016. 

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