London Irish 21-17 London Wasps, Aviva Premiership
Booth confirms interest in England job
ESPNscrum Staff
November 26, 2011
London Irish flanker Declan Danaher is held up, London Irish v London Wasps, Aviva Premiership, Madjeski Stadium, Reading, England, November 26, 2011
Exiles flanker Declan Danaher is held up by the Wasps defence during a tightly contested London derby © Getty Images
Enlarge
Related Links
Tournaments/Tours: Aviva Premiership
Teams: London Irish | Wasps

After watching his London Irish side record a hard-fought 21-17 victory over London Wasps on Saturday, Exiles head coach Toby Booth admitted that he would consider succeeding Martin Johnson as England team manager.

When asked if was going to rule himself out of the running for the vacancy, Booth, who first became a part of the Irish coaching set-up in 2002, was unequivocal in his reply: "No, never," he said. "An individual's ambition is to be the best they can be in their chosen field."

However, Booth did hint that the time just might not be right for him to walk away. "I have a massive amount of individual ambition but I also have a massive amount of club ambition," he said.

"I have been here 10 years in January and, as a result, I'm very proud of some of the achievements we have had in relation to performance; our Powergen Cup win and we have been to two finals and lost.

"We are on the brink and I would love to be in a position where we win something because that is, I think, the ultimate aim for any team."

As for his side's win over Wasps, Booth admitted that it had not been one for the neutrals. Christian Wade scored the only try of the game for the visitors right at the death but by that point the home side's victory had already been assured thanks to seven successful strikes on goal from fullback Tom Homer.

"We had to do what was necessary," Booth said. "Four points is the greatest positive out of it. In a week's time no-one will even be talking about the game because there was not a great amount to talk about.

"It was win the territory battle, win the kicking game, dominate up front and keep your rewards. And that's how it panned out."

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young did not dispute Booth's take on one of the most forgettable London derbies in recent history.

"It wasn't a great game," the former Cardiff Blues boss said. "It was two teams who didn't have a great amount of threat with the ball and far too much aimless kicking from the sides.

"From our point of view, I thought Irish were more accurate in their kicking than we were. We talked about it all week that, if you are going to give Homer any penalties, then it is almost a guaranteed three points.

"He has kicked seven and we have lost two games now to two very good kickers. Newcastle were the same. We scored two tries there and still lost the game.

"Although we scored a try right at the end today, we had some clear-cut opportunities where our accuracy was just not good enough.

"There was a lack of concentration for us which is obviously disappointing. We had six opportunities where our inaccuracies saw us giving the ball back to Irish and they kicked us back into our 22. We have to have concentration for 100% of the game, not 75% of the game."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.