Stephen Myler says that the Saints have to earn the right to win Saturday’s Aviva Premiership game against London Irish.
The trip to the Madesjski Stadium is sandwiched by the massive European Rugby Champions Cup clashes with Racing-92 and the Aviva Premiership matches against Exeter and Leicester, but Myler insists that the Saints will only be focused on the challenge in hand when they head to Reading.
“We’ve got to respect them, respect the game, and have to earn the right to win it, first and foremost,” he says in this week’s podcast. “[The Madejski Stadium] is a tough place to go and we always have a very difficult match down there. They’ve got some good players so we’re going to have to play well if we’re going to get a win.
“It’s a nice stadium with a good surface and a fast track, which suits them as they like to play an expansive game. They’ve got dangerous runners, especially in the back three, who are quick if you give them space and time.
“But it also suits us as well. We’ve got dangerous players as well, so we need to understand that they’re a good team and then impose ourselves and use our strengths. We go into games and try to do certain things and to play attacking rugby, and provided it’s dry and there’s not too much wind it helps to have more variety in what you can do.
“The nature of this competition is that any team can play well on their day and beat any other team. You can’t just turn up and expect that just because we did it last year that it’s going to happen again. We’ve got to repeat the good things.”
You can hear the full interview, along with extended chats with Ben Foden, Kahn Fotuali’i and defence coach Alan Dickens, for FREE on any device at www.soundcloud.com/official-saints-rugby or by subscribing on iTunes if you’re using an Apple device.
