Smith all smiles as Exiles ease away day blues
LONDON Irish director of rugby Brian Smith believes his side’s 23-20 victory at London Wasps was even better than last week’s triumph at Saracens as the Exiles recorded back-to-back away wins in Aviva Premiership Rugby for the first time since 2010.
Smith’s side picked up where they left off at Allianz Park, scoring two early tries through Ian Humphreys and David Paice on Saturday.
Some excellent goal kicking from Wasps fly-half Joe Carlisle and a red card to Exiles scrum-half Tomas O’Leary at the start of the second period had threatened to derail Irish, but with seven minutes remaining Shane Geraghty stepped up to slot a priceless drop goal and win it for the visitors.
“There is plenty of belief in the squad and we challenged ourselves to step up again. This win tops last weekend,” said Smith. “I have been watching Wasps over the last few weeks and they are the match of Saracens so I’m really proud of the boys. We knew we had to work our socks off in the second half going into the wind.
“If you want to be a great team you have to back it up week on week so that is our big challenge for next week. The pack have been brilliant since Christmas, we have worked really hard on our driving game.”
Saracens got back to winning ways on Friday evening with a hard-fought 15-10 win over Sale Sharks.
All of Sarries’ points came from the boot of fly-half Charlie Hodgson, playing against his former club, and director of rugby Mark McCall admitted it was a relief to get over the line.
“After the disappointment of what happened last week, that match was a bit stressful to watch,” said McCall.
“But I thought that we thoroughly deserved the victory.
On Saturday, Harlequins kept hold of fourth spot in the table with an 18-14 victory over Newcastle Falcons.
Eight of the best Aviva Premiership Rugby Under-18 sides will be at Allianz Park today for the inaugural Academy Finals Day. Entry is free.