London Irish's Ryan Lamb clings on to Leeds' Luther Burrelll during the Headingley clash © Getty Images

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Matches: Leeds Tykes 27 - 19 London Irish

Tournaments/Tours: Aviva Premiership

Teams: Leeds Tykes | London Irish

Leeds head coach Neil Back believes the success of the current England side is rubbing off on his relegation-threatened team after they boosted their chances of survival with a 27-19 victory over London Irish.

Last week's defeat to fellow strugglers Newcastle had led many to condemn the Yorkshire side to relegation from the Aviva Premiership. Newcastle's win over Harlequins on Friday added further weight to that pessimism and at 16-3 down after 32 minutes against the Exiles a heavy defeat appeared on the horizon for the hosts. But tries from centre Luther Burrell, lock Daniel Browne and replacement prop Mike MacDonald turned the game on its head and gave Leeds just a second win of the season to move within seven points of the Falcons at the foot of the table.

England internationals Steve Thompson and Hendre Fourie were not quite ready to face Newcastle last weekend after only returning from Six Nations duty late in the week, but they were released earlier this week and both produced workaholic displays to turn the contest around.

And Back believes being part of a Grand-Slam chasing side at Test level has given the duo an energy that their club-mates have fed on. "Belief is a massive part of the jigsaw," he said. "Last week we had tremendous hurt and what Hendre and Steve bought from the England environment was belief and that winning mentality.

"That is infectious and it infected the players and made a difference. Hopefully those players can be involved with England and the pursuit of the Grand Slam and hopefully as a squad we can continue the belief from today."

Former England flanker Back also hailed the resolve of his squad following defeat to Newcastle, and believes that togetherness means they can yet avoid the drop to the Championship. "I'm really pleased for the guys. This week has been tough for all involved, last week did not truly demonstrate how good Leeds can be.

"It's been a long seven days until we can play again, but if the public or anyone outside the environment needed a demonstration of the togetherness and the squad ethos we have got it was shown today. The spirit in the squad belies where we are. We lost our captain (Marco Wentzel to a calf injury) 20 minutes in but it did not faze the players and our performance was better.

"We did not make the errors we made last week. In the Premiership if you turn the ball over 19 times you won't win. We didn't do that today."

While Back was "over the moon" with his side's efforts, London Irish boss Toby Booth struggled to contain his anger at a defeat that seriously dents their play-off ambitions. A win today would have moved the Exiles into the top four and Seilala Mapasua's try, a penalty from Chris Malone and eight points from Ryan Lamb had them cruising at 16-3 up, before they crumbled in embarrassing fashion.

"I am angry for once. I am furious. To be in a position of such control in a contest and relinquish it, I think is criminal," said Booth. "When we were on the plan we looked very good. But there are certain elements where things get away from you.

"Their try before half-time was a key moment and we didn't re-establish control well enough after the break. We had opportunities to regain control and didn't take them and you could see the momentum shift and all of a sudden penalties aren't going your way and it becomes difficult to stop that.

"I spoke about desperation this week. Leeds are in a desperate situation and desperate people can do desperate things. And they showed that today."