Venter to stay with Exiles next season
March 19, 2002

London Irish coach Brendan Venter has agreed to stay at the Madejski Stadium until the end of next season.

The former South African international has quashed speculation which suggested he was ready to head home by agreeing to extend his rolling contract with the ambitious Zurich Premiership outfit.

Irish officials will be delighted to have tied Venter down to at least another year and will hope to extend his stay even further after an impressive first full season at the club.

Under Venter's charge, Irish - who gambled by leaving the capital for Reading in 2000 - have confounded pre-season relegation predictions and are still chasing silverware on three fronts.

They survived a second-half Harlequins fightback to reach the Powergen Cup Final, where they will meet Northampton at Twickenham on April 20.

Seven days later, the Exiles will tackle Welsh side Pontypridd for a place in the Parker Pen Shield final.

Venter will also hold out a realistic hope of a good run in the Zurich Championship end-of-season play-offs, having cemented a place in the top four with victory over Bristol in front of a record 12,000 crowd at the weekend, which also maintain's Irish's hopes of a Heineken Cup berth next term.

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