London Irish: Saracens' relegation will not change Exiles' focus - Brad Davis
- Published
London Irish were relegated from the Premiership for the second time in three years in 2018
Gallagher Premiership - Northampton v London Irish |
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Date: Friday 24 January Venue: Franklin's Gardens Kick-off: 19:45 GMT |
Coverage: Commentary on BBC local radio; Scores & Report on BBC Sport website & app |
London Irish will not lose focus on their aims for this Premiership season despite the threat of relegation being removed, says defence coach Brad Davis.
Saracens' automatic relegation for persistent salary cap breaches means Irish will be in the top flight when they move to Brentford next season.
"We want to continue be the best version of ourselves," assistant coach Davis told BBC Sport.
The Exiles were relegated from the Premiership in both 2016 and 2018.
"Obviously with Saracens, the investigations have been done and the decision's been made," Davis said.
"But where you find yourself in this sort of situation - like I've experienced before in the Pro14 where the 11 other clubs can't get relegated - it still comes down to the fact you want to win games and perform as well as you can.
"Our internal drive is to improve our performances, climb the table and try and string some wins together."
Despite a promising start to their latest top-flight return, Irish have lost their past three Premiership matches and slipped to third from bottom.
They travel to in-form Northampton, riding high in second place, on Friday.
After 20 years ground sharing at Reading's Madejski Stadium, Irish will become tenants at Brentford FC's new community stadium next season.
Davis admits that while events at Saracens will provide some security for the club, the focus for the players will remain unchanged.
"For the support staff, the commercial and marketing side, in terms of gaining sponsorship and how we can build the brand of London Irish into London, this does give a certainty for the next 18 months," said the former Bath, Wasps and Ospreys coach.
"But, there's an opportunity for us to evolve and develop our game and be as competitive as we can week-in, week-out.
"If we can put that forward, we'll be in a good shape come the end of the season to really crack on into the next campaign.
"But in all honesty, when we turned up for work on Monday morning after a disappointing performance against Scarlets, no-one's talking about next season.
"No-one's talking any further than Friday night at Franklin's Gardens against Northampton. If you start to focus on everything, you end up focusing on nothing."