Declan Kidney urges London Irish to 'improve further' ahead of Premiership opener

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney has urged his side to continue improving as they face Worcester Warriors in the Premiership opener at Community Stadium on 10th September.

The Exiles started the pre-season with a thrilling 31-29 win over Jersey Reds at St Peter and followed it with a 19-14 win over Munster Rugby at Irish Independent Park.

Kidney feels despite the wins, the team still can improve further as they look to begin the Premiership season with a victory.

“It does take a while for lads to settle in, without a shadow of a doubt, because the way we play requires the guys to get up to speed with the nuances of our game,” said Kidney to the club's official website.

“Having those three games was handy, we were able to give a lot of guys time and a few have 80 minutes under their belt spread across the two weeks.

“You can see the improvement from our first match, you’re not sure if you’re off the mark or if guys are trying too hard, or the fact that the opposition have turned up full tilt.

“But there was an improvement going into the second game, and we know now that we will only have to improve further for Saturday’s game.”

The Exiles will be facing Worcester in the opening game with the Warriors facing financial crisis amid unpaid taxes to HRMC. Despite a lot of uncertainty over Worcester competing in the season, Kidney said they are focussed on the encounter ahead.

“We have nothing but respect for Worcester and Steve Diamond, they strive through a lot of adversity, and I would imagine the human side of it would be unbelievably stressful.

“There are people in charge of the financial side and we are here somewhere in the middle in the rugby side, we are looking forward to it but we wouldn’t be side winked by it all.

“You can be caught up with these distractions, Steve had them well riled up the last time they came down to play us and we played them three times last year and the spoils lie with Worcester at the moment, so we have to get ourselves ready for that.

“As for the rugby side of the Club, that’s easy for us because they are the next match up so that is what our full focus is on.”