THEO BROPHY CLEWS says London Irish are more confident than they have been all season as they prepare to host Sale Sharks tomorrow (3pm).
The 20-year-old is set to make his first Premiership start this weekend alongside new signings Piet van Zyl and Arno Botha while Franco van der Merwe will captain the side.
Following four straight victories in European and Anglo-Welsh action, the Premiership returns this weekend with the Exiles sitting bottom of the table.
But Brophy Clews, who was named as London Irish player of the month for January, says he and his team-mates are ready for the battle.
“It is a step up,” admitted the fly-half.
“But I think we’re ready to take that step up.
“For us, we speak about the fact that we’re going to have to do it, this is our chance and Sale is a really good opportunity for us.
“We’ve changed our game quite a lot so we feel that’s really going to pay off and we’re confident in our game.
“Potentially for the first time this year we’ve been really, really confident in what we’ve done and proven that game plan works.
“So I think we’ve only got to be positive going into this game and just try and play the best rugby we can and the result will be what it will be.
“We’re expecting to put a really good performance on the park.”
Saturday is the first of four weeks of Premiership action with games against fellow bottom-half sides Northampton Saints and Worcester Warriors to come straight after Sale before a tricky trip to Wasps.
But Brophy Clews says prefers to take one day at a time.
“I think it’s easy to sit back and think we’ve got four games and we need to win them all,” he said.
“But actually that kind of big picture thing for us at the moment isn’t useful because it’s all
about what we do every day in training, going towards that specific game.
“This week has been completely about Sale.
“We spent a lot of time on Monday dissecting them and making sure we have a good plan going into Sale and once that’s gone, we’ll wipe the slate clean and then we’ll go to Northampton.
“I don’t think we really look at them in blocks.
“I think if you did do that then I think you’d get worn out and think that’s a massive challenge. You end up spending too much energy thinking about the big picture rather than what you’re doing every day.”
LONDON IRISH XV v Sale: Marshall, Cokanasiga, Fowlie, McLean, Lewington, Brophy Clews, van Zyl, Franks, Paice, Hoskins, van der Merwe (c), Paulo, Botha, Northcote-Green, Treviranus.
Reps: Fainga’a, Elrington, Du Plessis, De Chaves, Cowan, Steele, Bell, Tikoirotuma
