LES KISS says he expects the Championship title race to go down to the wire after both the top two sides won again at the weekend.
League leaders London Irish preserved their nine-point advantage with a resounding eight-try 52-22 victory over Coventry while chasers Ealing Trailfinders overcame a tricky trip to Cornish Pirates to keep the pressure on.
Ian Keatley, Brendan McKibbin, Dave Porecki, Ollie Hassell-Collins (2), Albert Tuisue, Brendan Macken and Topsy Ojo all crossed the whitewash in Irish’s victory, their sixth in a row in the league, which keeps them in pole position with seven games to play, but Kiss is expecting to be pushed all the way.
“We don’t expect Ealing to crack,” said the Exiles head coach.
“We just expect ourselves to keep a real tough eye on the job in front of us and not lose sight and get hijacked by what ifs.
“Of course there will be excitement about if they (Ealing) can drop a game and we can keep winning, for sure. But I think this is a back-end season.
“It’s going to go down to the last three weeks and that’s what we’re prepared for.”
The hosts stormed into the lead with less than two minutes on the clock against Coventry.
Debutant Keatley, who arrived from Munster earlier this month, did the honours, immediately making his mark by spotting a gap and bursting through to score.
Coventry stayed in touch to reduce the arrears to 7-3 courtesy of a Dan Lewis penalty.
And there was an even bigger blow to Irish moments later when Keatley was forced off after clattering his head in a challenge from David Halaifonua, which went unpunished.
That appeared to spark the Exiles into life, grabbing two quick tries before the half was out, both off driving lineouts with McKibbin sniping over before Porecki scored at the back of a maul to lead 19-3 at the break.
And the advantage was extended seven minutes after the restart when replacement fly-half Jacob Atkins’ kick picked out fellow academy graduate Hassell-Collins to run over in the corner.
The Exiles turned on the style minutes later with the try of the match with some brilliant handling before McKibbin offloaded to Tuisue to charge across the line for the fifth score of the afternoon.
Coventry were handed a lifeline midway through the half when flanker TJ Ioane was shown a yellow card for illegally slowing down an attack and the visitors instantly took advantage of the extra man, scoring out wide through Tom Jubb.
It did not take long for the visitors to go over again through Scott Tolmie, but any hopes of a Coventry comeback were thwarted as Tom Stephenson led an Irish attack which eventually led to Hassell-Collins going over again in the corner.
And there was still time for three late tries as Macken found space to add his name to the scoresheet before a late Pete White consolation. The last laugh went to the hosts through Ojo, who leapt across the line in the corner with Atkins adding the extras.
Focus now switches to the Championship Cup with Yorkshire Carnegie the visitors in the semi-finals on Sunday (1pm).
“It’s a massive opportunity for the club and for a lot of players who maybe haven’t been in that situation, so it’ll be good to step up next week,” said Kiss.
“Yorkshire have improved out of sight since Christmas. They’ll be a different proposition to when we played them earlier in the year (a 72-5 win).
“We’ve got to keep our head about that because they bought wisely, they’ve strengthened their squad and they’re playing a brand of football that’s not only abrasive but it can score tries so we’ve just got to be wary of that.
“But that’s what it is. We don’t want easy challenges, we want the challenge to be the one that’s worthy of winning and we’re sure they’ll bring that to us, but it would be nice to be able to arrive here next week and do that job and have that final to look forward to as well.”
London Irish have named their side for the Yorkshire clash with Barney Maddison coming in to captain the team while Terrence Hepetema has recovered from illness to play. Meanwhile, fly-half Tommy Bell is included in the squad for the first time all season following an Achilles injury.
LONDON IRISH: Tonks, Loader, Fowlie, Hepetema, McLean, Atkins, Steele, Reid, Porecki, Chawatama, Maddison (c), de Chaves, Northcote-Green, Gilsenan, Treviranus.
Reps: Adams, Saulo, Twomey, Curtis-Harris, Brand, Bell, Macken.
