HOWEVER ugly they may come, London Irish need to start picking up wins and points quickly, David Paice has said.
Exiles remain bottom of the Aviva Premiership table and now sit eight points adrift of closest rivals Newcastle Falcons, who dropped to 11th following Friday’s narrow 15-14 loss to another side looking to pull away from trouble, Worcester Warriors.
The struggling side are yet to pick up any league points on their travels this term – and were handed a heavy 47-20 defeat at Leicester Tigers last time out.
This an issue the hooker admits needs to be addressed if they are to stave of the very real threat of relegation.
Irish make the short trip west this weekend to face a Bath side also going through tough times of their own at present, as a run of seven defeats in eight games has seen the club drop down to eighth.
There was always the chance Tom Coventry’s men could find themselves further cut off at the foot of the table come kick-off on Saturday afternoon because of the game the night before (3.15pm), but Paice insists Irish will only focus on the task at hand.
“We know the position we are in and we really need to start picking up points,” the 32-year-old told The Wokingham Paper.
“Even if Newcastle and Worcester weren’t playing this weekend the pressure to pick up points is still there, so the players have got to start thinking smart.”
When asked why Irish are having a hard time on the road, Paice added: “It’s a combination of things. We are making a lot of mistakes, giving away a lot of penalties and not picking up some of the decisions from the referee.”
Paice scored the first of three tries run in by the visitors during a much improved second half performance at Welford Road.
The damage, however, had already been done during the first 40 minutes, with the player admitting the team contributed to their own downfall.
“After the first half the game was probably gone, so it gave us licence to attack and go forward,” said Paice.
“It was very disappointing. We went up there after we didn’t get the result against Exeter (the weekend before) and putting on a good performance, but things didn’t improve.
“We made a few mistakes in the first 20 minutes and they got their first try in the first four minutes, and you cannot go to a place like Leicester and give a great team three easy tries.
“It is very hard to come back from that and we made a lot of mistakes and Leicester capitalised from our errors.
“Leicester played well and were very clinical and took their chances.
“But we were kicking ourselves because of the tackles we missed and the errors we made, but the good thing about rugby is there is always another game next week.”
That next game for Irish comes against a side coached by a man well known to the club in Toby Booth, whom Paice played under while in charge of the Exiles.
“I’m very surprised where they are in the ladder,” admitted the player.
“I know the team quite well and they have great players, great coaching staff and their team is a lot better then where they are.
“The team may be low on confidence but will still be very dangerous, but if we can go and put some early points on the board and put them under pressure, who knows what can happen.”
