London Irish coach Declan Kidney reflects on Harlequins defeat

London Irish coach Declan Kidney couldn’t hide his disappointment in the wake of Saturday’s last-gasp defeat at home to Harlequins.

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Marcus Smith’s try – in the final play of the game – clinched victory for the visitors, to leave Kidney pondering what might have been at the end of a tight affair at the Brentford Community Stadium.

“We’ve been involved in a few of those this season,” said Declan Kidney, “and unfortunately this one went against us.

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“We just have to take it on the chin and move on.

“We always strive to be the very best version of ourselves every time we take to the field of play, and perhaps we were just a bit short of that. 

“I know we can play a lot better than that.

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“I think everyone will probably remember the last 10 minutes, but I’ll be looking at the first half too, when we were a bit shy of ourselves.”

Declan Kidney added: “We win together, we lose together – but of course we’re all disappointed.

“We’ve made some good strides this year and we’ll look to continue that between now and the end of the season.

“We’ll take it on the chin and move on to the next one against Newcastle in two weeks time.”

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