BLAIR COWAN is calling on London Irish to make Madejski Stadium a fortress as they look to kick-start their Aviva Premiership campaign against Bath on Saturday (3pm).
Exiles come into the contest with no points from their three games so far following a 24-14 loss to Saracens last time out and having failed to win an away match since February, the need to perform in front of their own crowd is even greater.
“I think everyone’s aware of how important the Premiership is when it comes to home games and building a fortress and having that mental edge when teams come here,” Cowan told The Wokingham Paper.
“We need to start building that and I think this week would be a good one against such a top side like Bath and that would give us that first win which will give us confidence going into future Premiership and European games.”
Despite failing to get off the mark so far, Cowan feels the side is beginning to buy into the new methods implemented by head coach Tom Coventry.
“I think fluidity was always going to be an issue with boys slowly filtering in back from the World Cup,” said the back-rower.
“Attitude was definitely never an issue because the boys when they turned up were ready to work so it’s just the nature of the beast when you arrive trying to get in the same pattern and the same wave length as everyone else.”
Amongst those having to adapt to life back with the Exiles after the World Cup is Cowan, who played the majority of Scotland’s heartbreaking quarter-final defeat to Australia having received a late call-up to the squad.
And the New Zealand-born Scot admits it is still tough to think about.
“I think it’s going to sting a little bit for quite some time,” he said.
“But if you give me a bit of time I’ll look down the track at an amazing experience and something that I’ll obviously cherish for the rest of my career.
“Like the rest of my career, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster. That continued at the World Cup.
“One minute I’m sitting on the couch, next thing you know you’re starting against South Africa!”
Irish’s three defeats have come against the sides currently sitting in the top three positions in the table and while the style of play has changed since the summer arrival of Coventry, Cowan insists he is embracing the challenge.
“I’ve been about a fair bit now and I’ve played different styles and I get the sort of style we want to play this year,” he explained.
“It is different but it’s also exciting and I’ve played in environments like this and had great success so I know what we’re aiming for and I’ve definitely bought into it and am starting to get a feel for it.”
Bath come to Madejski Stadium on the back of two straight losses themselves, but given Irish’s recent record against Saturday’s opponents, five league defeats in succession, Cowan is well aware of the challenge he and his team-mates face.
“I think we can take massive pride in our defence last weekend,” he said.
“I think that was one of our strengths.
“We know what sort of game plan Bath play with so we’re aware that they like to either have the short ball with a lead runner or out the back and we’ve got to be switched on to that.
“Also, when we get the chance to play we have to be smart with what we do and just keep to our structure and take a lot of confidence from Sarries but we’re not going to underestimate Bath at all because we know how dangerous they are.
“It’s a home game so we’ll feed off that as well.”
