Exiles form puts pressure on O’Shea

LONDON IRISH boss Conor O’Shea has warned his job is under threat unless the Exiles turn around their poor form before the end of the season.

Irish have won just once in seven outings in the Premiership, their sixth defeat coming in a tense match against Northampton on Saturday.

That result left them just two points above bottom-of-the-table Bristol. And O’Shea admitted last night: “If that is the position at the end of the season I will not be here to judge it.”

The club’s solitary league win came against Saracens last month. Their only other victory this season was in a Heineken Cup match against Edinburgh. But, despite Irish’s poor opening to the current campaign, O’Shea is

confident he and player-coach, South African Brendan Venter, can steer the side to more successful times.

O’Shea, a former Exiles player, added: “I don’t feel under pressure about my job immediately because I think we can turn this all around.

“But if we don’t change, it is out of our hands.”

Irish fell to a 9-0 deficit early on in their home tie at the Madejski Stadium against Saints at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Taine Randell has regained the New Zealand captaincy for their forthcoming three-test

European tour.

The Otago flanker becomes the third All Black skipper this year with Anton Oliver and Reuben Thorne ruled out by injury.

The pair were among almost an entire team of established test performers missing from a 26-man party named by All Black coach John Mitchell.As well as Thorne, 12 players from Super 12 champions Canterbury

Crusaders are either injured or rested. But out-of-form Jonah Lomu, so often England’s nemesis in the past, is

included in a tour party featuring 12 uncapped players. It is, said Mitchell, “a very critical time for Jonah”.