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DAVID PAICE says back-to-back defeats to Jersey Reds have been “the wake-up call” London Irish needed.
Exiles have cruised to top spot in the Greene King IPA Championship this season, securing top spot with 17 wins from 17 last month.
However, since then they have seen their unbeaten run ended and also been dumped out of the British and Irish Cup by in-form Jersey, who Irish could face in the play-offs.
But Paice feels the side can take plenty from the recent setbacks.
“We tried a few different things in Jersey,” Paice told The Wokingham Paper.
“We thought it might be beneficial for us but at end of the day we realised we were doing pretty well the whole season and going away from what was working for us probably wasn’t the best idea.
“Going back to what we do best is what I think we’ll see in the coming weeks.
“The attitude from the boys has been really good and the coaches have really driven it.
“We’ve kept our eyes on the big prize, which is the final series of games in the Championship.
“Any loss hurts, but we’re hopefully going to learn from that and it’s going to do us wonders for the coming weeks.”
After securing top spot in March with three league games still to play, it is perhaps understandable for minds to begin drifting towards the play-offs.
And while Paice did not think that was the case initially, he now acknowledges that a lack of intensity may have crept in.
“The Jersey games were the wake-up call we needed,” said the hooker.
“It is hard because it’s a different feeling and something we’ve never had before.
“At the time we didn’t think complacency was creeping in, but we didn’t really play our best against Jersey in both games.
“You’ve got to look at reasons why and maybe a bit of complacency was one of the reasons.
“We probably went away from what we were doing best.
“The wake-up call for us was we just need to keep doing what we were doing well and keep improving on that, rather than changing per game.”
Exiles defeated Titans 38-10 when the two sides met in December.
But Irish legend Paice is expecting the visitors to be fired up when they make the return trip to Berkshire on Saturday.
“This is their last game of the season so they will definitely be wanting to finish off the season with a bang,” he said.
“We know that they were physical when we played them first time around so I think they’re going to come more with that same gameplan and try to attack us up front.
“Our scrum didn’t go the best against Jersey so you’d think they’ll want to try and attack us, but we’ve worked really hard on that this week.
“It’s going to be a really tough, physical game and hopefully in great weather we at London Irish can throw it around a little bit, do well in the set piece and score some points.”
Paice will skipper the side tomorrow but Nick Kennedy has made eight changes from the last league game at Jersey with Brendan McKibbin, Joe Cokanasiga, Fergus Mulchrone, Greig Tonks, Aseli Tikoirotuma, Jebb Sinclair, Mike Coman and Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi earning recalls. Fit again Tommy Bell is among the replacements.
LONDON IRISH XV v Rotherham: Tonks, Lewington, Tikoirotuma, Mulchrone, Cokanasiga, Brophy Clews, McKibbin, Hobbs-Awoyemi, Paice (c), Hoskins, De Chaves, Sinclair, Coman, Cowan, Treviranus.
Reps: Porecki, Court, Chawatama, Lloyd, Gilsenan, Steele, Bell.
