O’Shea salutes ‘punch drunk’ Exiles

London Irish director of rugby Connor O’Shea admitted three games in a week had left his side ‘‘punch drunk’’, but he was delighted the Exiles had booked a place in the Heineken Cup for the first time.

Leicester turned on the style to secure a 34-16 victory at Welford Road, but with Northampton failing to claim a bonus point from victory over Newcastle, London Irish were confirmed as finishing fourth in the Zurich Premiership.

With it came to qualification for the Heineken Cup and a home tie against, ironically, Northampton in the Zurich Championship play-off quarter-finals.

But London Irish only scraped through, having failed to win a game since their Powergen Cup final victory over Northampton at Twickenham and O’Shea was upset with the fixture pile up at this late stage of the season.

Irish had led narrowly at the interval, but Leicester ran in three second-half scores and were awarded a penalty try as they completed a fourth successive league campaign without a home defeat.

‘‘The guys are absolutely punch drunk at the end of the season,’’ said O’Shea. ‘‘I’m really looking forward to getting the guys in shape for next season.

‘‘They’ve played three games this week and you could see out there they just ran out of gas in the second half.

‘‘That comes from playing three games of that intensity in a week and it’s just not on when there is so much riding on it.

‘‘We had a lot of success until a few weeks ago and we were in every competition we could be in, but the guys are playing week in and week out and the games start doubling up and you get a few injuries.

‘‘I’d prefer to take finishing fourth and ending the season punch drunk, but then I’m not a player. Hopefully we will be in same position next year.’’

Despite the difficult end to the season, O’Shea believes his side fully deserve all they have achieved this campaign and is excited about the prospect of the club’s first adventure in the European Cup.

‘‘We’ve played three massive games in a week and yes, we have crawled across the line, but it’s a whole season’s work,’’ he said.

‘‘You might say it’s a disappointing end to the season, but it’s been a great season for the club to have won the cup and come fourth and qualified for Europe.

‘‘We’re delighted to take bow in European Cup for the first time. It’s a great thing for the club. We’ll regroup and get ourselves well and truly ready for next year.’’

While Irish look forward to next season’s Heineken Cup, O’Shea’s opposite number Dean Richards is focused on this year’s final.

Having rested his stars at Bristol last week, Richards recalled nine internationals to the starting line-up but gave little away as to his selection thoughts heading into the Cardiff showpiece with Munster.

‘‘There are a lot of positions up for grabs for the Heineken Cup,’’ he said, playing questions as to his half-back pairing with a straight bat.

Austin Healey played at scrum-half today with Andy Goode at number 10, but Richards said there was nothing to be read into today’s selections.

‘‘The fly-half position is one of 15. All position is up for grabs. I think both Andy and Austin acquitted themselves well in their relative positions. They both combined well.

‘‘We are just looking to see what our best side will be come two weeks time.’’