Irish chief reads the riot act

London Irish coach Gary Gold is demanding a massive improvement from his side when they face Montauban in the second leg of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup at Reading on Sunday.

Gold was furious with the way his men played as they were beaten 30-26 in last week's first leg in France.

"We have a four-point deficit and I am very unhappy with that," said the coach.

"Our execution was poor and we have to refocus and get our act together. After that showing Montauban will be confident they can beat us again. We demolished their line-out but simply failed to dominate them in other areas.

"But it would be unacceptably arrogant not to respect their achievements in the first leg and accept that they are capable of doing that again this weekend.

"That said, we should be able to close the deficit. As a group of players the London Irish guys respond extremely well to poor performances and come out firing."

If Irish do emerge victorious they will face either Rotherham or Narbonne in the next round.

Montauban coach Frederic Faragou said: "We are not going to go to Reading just to try to keep the difference to four points - that would be ridiculous."

Harlequins have a 13-point advantage going into tomorrow's second leg at home to Dulciora El Salvador, from Spain. There will be a crowd of 8,000 at The Stoop and they will see Will Greenwood carrying the Rugby World Cup around the ground before kick-off.

Saracens have a 32-point lead over Roma for Sunday's second leg at Watford.

The London Wasps continue their Heineken Cup campaign at Calvisano in Italy tomorrow without Lawrence Dallaglio and Josh Lewsey, who are rested.