Promoted club face tough survival mission

(second season) Promoted from the Championship - won 19, drawn 0, lost 1 - 91 points. Beat Yorkshire Carnegie 84-66 on aggregate in the final. David Paice (10) Tommy Bell (253 pts) Darren Allinson, Gerard Ellis, Luke Narraway, Jerry Sexton, Jebb Sinclair, Joe Trayfoot, Tevita Koloamatangi, George Robson, Tom Court.

Darren Dawidiuk, Petrus du Plessis, Saia Fainga’a, Lasha Lomidze, Luke McLean, Ben Meehan, Napolioni Nalaga, Teofilo Paulo, Gordon Reid, Manasa Saulo, Jake Schatz. Petrus du Plessis

Hard though I am trying, it is very difficult to envisage anything other than a relegation battle for the newly promoted Exiles.

In their favour, the realism currently emanating from their camp does at least suggest they will be up for the fight from the first weekend.

This is very different to the relaxed approach with which they launched their ill-fated 2015/16 campaign under Tom Coventry.

The Kiwi head coach, for whom current Wasps lock Matt Symons played both in Super Rugby and at the Madejski, where he was captain, took a long time to get to grips with the realities of a dog-eat-dog world which ends with the bottom club being relegated.

As a consequence, while Irish concentrated on improvement and performance, their relegation rivals scrapped their way to a position that put enough distance between themselves and Irish to safeguard against what happened when Coventry’s club eventually became more competitive after Christmas.

Under long-serving former player Nick Kennedy, they have kept the bulk of their Championship winning squad together, replacing nine leavers with imports who mainly originate from the Southern Hemisphere and Europe. Saracens prop Petrus du Plessis is the name that stands out and if they can build a combative set of forwards around him, they may have a chance of survival.

Relegated