JAMES MARSHALL says London Irish are relishing the weekly tag of being underdogs.
The Exiles clinched their immediate return to the Premiership in May, but have won just once in the league since, as well as picking up one win in Europe.
And focus now switches to a third tournament on Saturday with the opening round of fixtures in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, where Irish take in an in-form Bath side at the Mad Stad.
Nick Kennedy has named a strong side for the game with Alex Lewington, Petrus du Plessis, David Paice and Blair Cowan all in the starting line-up.
But Exiles will once again be seen as outsiders, rated as one of the four sides least likely to lift the trophy by the bookmakers.
“We knew that this season we were going to be underdogs every week,” Marshall told The Wokingham Paper.
“That’s exciting and really gets you up for the challenge.
“We’ve been pretty disappointed with the results of late bar a couple but everyone is still pretty positive that we’re still looking to learn and get better.
“Hopefully we can see that over the next few weeks.”
Marshall has been selected to play at full-back having played most of his time at Irish playing at fly-half.
But he says he has no issues with making the positional switch.
“I haven’t played much full-back over here,” said the Aussie.
“But I’ve spent most of my career at full-back so I find it an easier transition than the other way around.
“I’m just looking to make Theo’s (Brophy Clews) job as easy as possible in the 10 jersey and give our two sides of attack something to attack off.
“So I’ll sort of play as a 10 but with 15 on my back.”
A 44-13 defeat against Saracens at the weekend left the Exiles 11th in the Premiership table.
And although Irish were trailing by just seven points after an hour, Marshall says Sarries were probably the best team he has ever come up against.
“I thought we started reasonably well,” he said.
“But to be fair, I thought we were really hanging on for that 60 minutes.
“I thought Saracens were class.
“They were a different level at the weekend to anything we’ve played and anything I’ve played before as well.
“I was really impressed with how good they actually were.”
He added: “Even watching the game back, it was so close with 20 minutes to go but we didn’t really look like scoring or we didn’t really get much of a chance to fire a shot.
“They just controlled the game so well and we’ve learnt a lot out of that game.”
After two weeks of upcoming cup action, the league returns on November 19 with a clash against Bath.
And Marshall believes winning against the same opponents this Saturday can have an impact on that league game.
“Everyone’s excited to get another crack and take the learnings from what we got from the game against Saracens and really put that into place against Bath,” he said.
“I’m not sure what sort of side they’re going to put out but we’re really focussed on what we need to do and we’re looking forward to doing that.
“We’ve got them in the first Premiership game back too, so we can take a lot of confidence from this game.
“Hopefully we can really put a good performance out there and build towards the Premiership game.”
LONDON IRISH XV v Bath: Marshall, Cokanasiga, Mulchrone, McLean, Lewington, Brophy Clews, McKibbin, Elrington, Paice (c), Du Plessis, van der Merwe, Paulo, Northcote-Green, Cowan, Schatz.
Reps: Woolstencroft, Smallbone, Hoskins, Lloyd, Treviranus, Steele, Tikoirotuma, Ransom.
