Noakes keen to build on Saints win

Last week saw London Irish record their first Aviva Premiership win of the season with a nail biting 25 – 23 win on Boxing Day.

After a tough start to the season, the victory was the perfect Christmas present for Tom Coventry’s side, and fly half Chris Noakes was pleased the side could repay their fans’ support.

“We were really pleased. It was a  few weeks late but nice for us to get that win and also for our supporters.

“They turned out in great numbers and were great. It was a great atmosphere and to play well against a great side made it all the more satisfying for us.”

In a closely contested match it was the Exiles’ pack that proved pivotal, holding out the Saint’s maul on more than one occasion and applied the pressure at scrum time which resulted in the wining penalty try.

“Our forwards were fantastic,” continued Noakes. “They stopped their maul a few times and made Saints go away from it and obviously to culminate in a penalty try from an impressive scrum that had been good all game was really pleasing.”

For Irish, the win brings them up off the bottom of the table and having recorded a win against last year’s table toppers, there is a lot to build on moving forward.

“We can draw a lot of confidence from it,” said Noakes. “We performed really strongly and managed to put it all together.

We always missed an element in our previous games, something let us down, so on Saturday in all worked for us and we all did our own job.

“That was the thing we have been asking of the boys, to do their job and do it well and I think that is what we saw.”

Noakes and company will be hoping to build on last week’s win when they travel to Kingshom to face Gloucester this weekend, but the fly half knows it will be a tough encounter.

“It will be tough, they play with a lot of width but I have heard the pitch may be a little soft and slow so it may be a bit tighter than either side wants in terms of the expansive nature of the game.

“I enjoy their crowd, they are very knowledgeable and vocal so it is a good place to play,” he said of the famous Kingsholm crowd.

“It is part of the nature of the beast. People always say block it out and you cant hear it but that is rubbish, you can hear it. It is just a matter of dealing with it and soaking it in and using it.”