“The dream is still alive.”
That was the reaction of Nick Kennedy after London Irish picked up their first league victory since September with a 22-9 success over Worcester Warriors on Sunday.
The Exiles have been cut adrift at the foot of the Premiership table after 14 straight defeats, but they have now cut the gap to Worcester to 12 points with six games to play.
And while Kennedy admits it will still be tough to stave off relegation, he is happy that the Exiles have at least ended the long losing run.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Irish’s director of rugby.
“We’ve come close on five or six occasions. The boys trained hard all week, desperate.
“We just talk about getting scalps now.
“We just want to go out and show people that we are a good team.
“We know where we are in the league and there’s no hiding behind that.”
He added: “Last time we played Worcester (23-8 defeat) was one of our worst games of the season.
“The pressure got to us and I think we really let ourselves down.
“All week we’ve been talking about just giving a good account of ourselves and taking it to Worcester. We thought we owed Worcester one.”
Next week will certainly be a step up again with a trip to Wasps.
The Coventry-based club sit third in the table and have lost just one of their last 10 Premiership matches.
“We’re still playing for scalps,” said Kennedy.
“We’ve got Wasps away which is a very difficult place to go. We need to go there with no pressure, take the shackles off, just go out and play for each other and show the rest of the rugby world what we can do and that we are a good team.
“It’s about getting that belief now.
“It’s about arriving on Tuesday morning really excited now, excited that it is still possible.
“The dream is still alive and now we just throw everything at Wasps.”
