LOVEJOY Chawatama reflected on a job well done as London Irish opened their Premiership Rugby Cup campaign with an impressive 49-29 success at Gloucester.
Scott Steele grabbed a hat-trick, hooker Ross McMillan added a brace and fellow forwards George Nott and Conor Gilsenan also crossed the whitewash in a brilliant seven-try success.
Stephen Myler added three conversions and a penalty before being replaced by debutant Paddy Jackson, with the Irish star knocking over a penalty and conversion to record his first points for Exiles.
Chawatama commented: “It has been a long pre-season, 13 weeks.
"It is good to be out there playing with the boys, the squad has been working hard on everything, obviously we conceded a few points, but there are a lot of positives to take out of this game, scoring a lot of points at Kingsholm is great and doesn’t happen very often."
Meanwhile assistant coach Declan Danaher paid tribute to Albert Tuisue and hat-trick hero Steele, stating: “Albert took a great take from the restart to set up the try for George Nott and he made a few big tackles around the field as well, once he got going, he did some good things.
"Scott played well and took his tries well. He even moved to the wing for the last 15 minutes and put in a massive defensive effort.”
While pleased with the victory, Danaher was disappointed with Irish conceding four tries.
He confessed: “There first two tries were from our making. I thought defensively we looked in control, apart from when we gave away a penalty or turned over possession.
“Fair play to them, they wanted unstructured play, if we kept our shape defensively and won collisions, they didn’t cause us too many problems. Off turnover ball they were clinical.”
Exiles play their first game of the season at Madejski Stadium when they host Harlequins on Saturday (3pm), and Chawatama is looking forward to playing in front of the Exiles fans.
He concluded: “They are always the 24th player, they are always there wherever we go.
"They are diehard supporters and we really appreciate their support. Please keep supporting us and we will see you all on Saturday at the Madejski.”
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