Future looks bright for Exiles

London Irish have seen considerable change over the off season. A new coaching set up led by Tom Coventry, formerly of Super Rugby franchise the Chiefs, has been bought in and on the pitch there has been some serious spending.

After finishing 10th in the league and narrowly losing out in the European Challenge Cup quarter finals last season, the squad has seen a huge amount of investment. Signings such as World Cup winner Ben Franks, British and Irish Lion Sean Maitland and the highly rated young English lock Matt Symons have all been massive statements of intent.

In total, London Irish have bought in 11 new players as they look to mount a challenge in the 2015/16 season.

The off season has been a long one, the Exiles squad assembled at their state of the art home in Sunbury back in July and have been working hard ahead of the new season.

Last week saw them have their first outing of the preseason as they travelled to Cork to play Munster.

The two sides couldn’t have been at more different stages in their preparations. For London Irish, as with all Premiership sides, the start of the season is still six weeks away and there is plenty of time to sharpen up. But for Munster, whose season starts this week, this was a final chance to fine tune ahead of a busy Pro12 season.

It was a closely contested first half, and both sides had chances. For London Irish it was winger Alex Lewington, who played for the England XV versus the Barbarians last season and recently signed a contract extension at the club, with two chances. On both occasions the Munster scramble defence did just enough to force him into touch.

Despite both sides playing with intent, the first half remained scoreless until the 34th minute before Andrew Conway collected his own chip through to score the first try of the game and as the two sides headed into the break it was 7 – 0 to the hosts.

Two quick tries from Munster at the start of the second half put Coventry’s charges on the back foot, but a good finish with tries from Lewington and new signing Christian Lewis-Pratt of sevens fame, bought the final score to 21 – 15.

“It was quite a scrappy game but it was pleasing to give the whole squad a run out,” said Coventry after the game.

“The boys performed well out there in front of a tough team, and the Academy players also did really well. Giving guys opportunities is what it is all about at this time of year.

“We finished strongly and maybe we left three or four tries out there. If some of those had come off then maybe things would have gone our way a bit more.

“There are a lot of positives to take but we were beaten tonight and at the end of the day that is what rugby is all about. We will go away and look over the game and re-assess and try to build our game over the next six weeks.”

Despite the loss, things look promising for the Exiles. Still six weeks out from the start of the Premiership they ran a Munster side primed for the season close in their own back yard.

Add into the mix the likes of Franks, Halani Aulika, Samoa captain Ofisa Treviranus and Maitland after the World Cup and the season ahead looks bright for Coventry’s Exiles.