London Irish stand-in skipper Matt Williams has heaped praise upon the rest of his teammates following their impressive back-to-back wins in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
The Exiles battled their way past Northampton Saints 36-26 away at Franklin’s Gardens, before producing a superb 29-20 win over Saracens under the Friday night lights of the Brentford Community Stadium.
And Williams, who played a starring role in both of London Irish’s cup victories was left delighted by both performances, whilst also acknowledging they had things to work on moving forward.
Williams said: “I feel very proud of the boys for what we achieved over the last two weeks.
“That’s ten points from two games which if you’d said to us at the beginning, we’d have definitely taken.
🗣 "𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺."
— London Irish (@londonirish) November 22, 2021
Friday night was a proud moment for @Matty13williams as he captained Irish to a win over Saracens.
🎟 👉 https://t.co/EZ5FsDnbrC pic.twitter.com/ODQEAjywRQ
“There are lots of things to work on in our performance but I thought we showed great resolve to grind out the wins in the end – so really pleased for the boys.”
Against Saracens, London Irish went into the break 21-0 up after a dominant first-half showing that had the Brentford Community Stadium bouncing.
But inaccuracies in the opening stages of the second half allowed Saracens to hit back, making life more difficult than it should have been for a side who were comfortably in control of proceedings.
And Williams admits that while Irish managed to grind out the win in the end, they have to continue to push on to ensure those lapses don’t continue to creep into their game.
Williams added: “We’ve been in positions like that before and we haven’t got the result.
“So it does show that we’ve been growing as a squad.
Two wins from two matches in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
— London Irish (@londonirish) November 21, 2021
Back into Gallagher Premiership action next weekend 👊 pic.twitter.com/1MED7lQo5N
“However, there’s a lot more to go because we don’t want to have to put ourselves in those positions when we got 21-0 up. We want to push on.
“That’s the learning for this group, it’s how to remain in charge and keep going with the momentum and that’s something we’ll be working on for next week against Harlequins.
“But again, it shows great fight to weather the storm.”
The win against Saracens was a night to remember for Williams, who captained his boyhood club for the first time after being named skipper during the week by Declan Kidney.
And the 23-year-old could barely contain his emotions when asked what it meant for him to lead London Irish to a Premiership Rugby Cup victory.
“It’s the only club I’ve ever known, it’s my boyhood club.
“It was a very proud moment for me and my family when Declan [Kidney] told me earlier in the week and I just hope I did the best job I could for the boys.
“If I could perform myself as well as help lead them on, then that’s brilliant for me. If I get the chance again, I’d love it, but it’s an honour regardless.”
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