Brian Smith?believes London Irish can still finish in the Premiership top-six, despite an indifferent first half to the campaign.
The Exiles currently lie in 11th place in the league, with two wins from 10 games, and last weekend?s defeat at Gloucester all but ended the side?s interest in the Amlin Challenge Cup for this season.
However, Exiles? director of rugby is optimistic of a good second half to the season.
?We?re certainly looking forward and not over our shoulders,? said Smith.
?We still think we can get ourselves into a decent position in the league.
?From where we are now, if we can target a top-six spot that?s a massive challenge for us and I think it?s certainly something that is achievable.
?On a day-to-day basis you?ve just got to break it down, take one training session at a time, make sure we?re as productive as we possibly can and have a good, efficient and constructive training session.
?We just build on things from there.
?The best way to go about it, is to bite off small chunks and that?s how we?ll attack this challenge.?
Irish have come in for some fierce criticism from some quarters following recent poor results, but Smith is adamant he will not change the team?s style.
He said: ?We?re going to continue to be a team that tries to attack, and with that attack comes some risk.
?The way we go about our kick-offs, we?re going out to win the ball back and if you don?t you leave yourselves very vulnerable sometimes.
?So we?re not going to become a team that plays kick-chase.
?We expect our defence to make their tackles
?Shaun Edwards (defence coach) is responsible for the system.
?By and large our system is fine, we?ve got one or two guys in the squad who are struggling on the defensive side and we?re making incremental improvements on them technique-wise.?
He continued: ?I think our supporters will back us through the tough times and they?ll be proud of us for having emerged with our integrity in tact and the fact we want to be a positive, attacking team.?
Smith is happy to be returning to league action on Saturday (kick-off 3pm) when fourth-placed Leicester Tigers are the visitors to Madejski Stadium.
?Our focus is now the Premiership and we?re locked and loaded, ready to go for Saturday,? he added.
?We?ve been a very competitive side at home all season and taken a few big scalps at home, like Northampton and Bath, and probably deserved to beat Harlequins,
?So it will be a very good measure and a through examination for us.
?But we?re up for it and we?ve got a squad that?s itching to get at Leicester.?
The Australian explained fans should not be worried about the league table, as the side are capable of turning things around.
?We?re probably a couple of wins better than where we really are in the table, but you?ve got to be good enough as an organisation to absorb those disappointments and bounce back,? said Smith.
?We?re still very upbeat, we know we?ve got ourselves into a bit of a corner, but we?re prepared to fight and scrap for every point on the scoreboard and on the table.?
Smith also said he had drawn a line under last Saturday?s horror show at Gloucester which saw the Exiles go down 47-3 in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
?We don?t have the biggest squad and we?ve got lots of niggles,? he said.
?If anything it was a good experience for the younger lads and they?ll be a lot better for it.
?Individually it was good to see Kieran Low (pictured above) and James Sandford - they put themselves about so that was pleasing.?
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