Aviva Premiership
Booze ban leads London Irish to victory
ESPN Staff
October 8, 2013
Harlequins found it hard going against London Irish © Getty Images
Enlarge

London Irish boss Brian Smith has revealed the secret behind their promising start to the Aviva Premiership campaign - the squad's self-imposed beer ban.

Irish were widely tipped to be relegation fodder come the end of the season but they have started the campaign promisingly and turned over previous Premiership champions Harlequins at the weekend 18-13 at the Madejski Stadium.

That was their second win of the season and Smith has praised his players for their early season off-field discipline.

"The boys have had a self-imposed drinking ban for the past six weeks," Smith told the BBC. "That is how much it means to the boys to do well. They made a commitment to each other. It was nothing to do with the coaches - it was led by the senior players.

"But that curfew has ended so the boys will have a couple of beers and deservedly so before our next game on Friday night [against Cavalieri Prato]."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
Download ESPN's new UK multisport app, a fresh and powerful new way to follow your favourite UK sports news, scores and video.

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices