“We’ll be in the Heineken Cup regardless of LV Cup result” – Brian Smith

For the first time this season, the winner of the LV Cup will earn an automatic qualification for the Heineken Cup giving the competition extra value.
But London Irish head coach Brian Smith is adamant the Exiles’ final result in the Cup won’t matter as they will be in the European showdown anyway thanks to a Top Six finish in the Premiership.
He told The Rugby Paper: “Our LV Cup performance will not impact in our Heineken Cup qualification because we’ll be in it with our league finish.
“We haven’t given up on a top four finish hopes and to be honest our start of the season reminds me of my first year at the club back in 2005.
“We struggled until Christmas but we got going after that and eventually finished third.”
Just like last week, Smith is fielding a very strong team to travel to Welford Road today despite playing in a competition renowned for seeing the best players rested from the Premiership while youngsters get a chance to impress.
But for Smith, this is not in his side’s DNA. Whatever the competition, they look to field their best possible team to compete the best they can, they owe it to their fans.
He said: “We’re not like the Tigers or Saracens. We don’t have 50 senior team players. We have  a relatively small playing group and we’re picking the guys we think can do the job every week.
“There is many way to do things but we don’t spend anymore than the salary cap. We want a very competitive squad and we wouldn’t put on an under-strength side especially at home.
“We want our fans to know they’ll see the best team we’ve got when they come down to see us play.
“Our motto is that we are in a competition to win it wether it’s the LV Cup or the Sevens.”
Their convincing win over Sale last week saw the return of England prop Alex Corbisiero and Shane Geraghty for their first start of the season.
While Corbisiero was impeccable at the scrum, it was Geraghty and his combination with Ian Humphreys stirring the team around the park that impressed.
He added: “We are scored a lot of tries in the corners showing the width of our game. Having these two distributors allows us to give our attack more width.
“Add to this duo Tomas O’Leary at scrum-half and there is a lot of experience and, with them in the midfield, it gives the team a lot of direction and purpose.
“It’s a perfect combination. We have some young and exciting young runners but they don’t understand the game as well as these guys yet.”
NICK VERDIER