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Gloucester eye title charge after seeing off 14-man London Irish

Jake Polledri of Gloucester is mobbed by his team mates after scoring a try against London Irish on Saturday - Getty Images Europe
Jake Polledri of Gloucester is mobbed by his team mates after scoring a try against London Irish on Saturday - Getty Images Europe

Billy Burns claims he is no longer afraid to take a glance at the Premiership table now that Gloucester are riding high and beginning to resemble serious title contenders for the first time in years.

The former England Under-20s fly-half insists he and his team-mates are not getting carried away by the sight of the Cherry and Whites sitting in the top three following a fifth successive victory.

Johan Ackermann’s men are growing in confidence and belief, and a bonus-point 39-15 victory over London Irish provided more proof of what the West Country outfit might achieve this season.

It was a game tarnished by the sending-off of the visitors’ veteran hooker and captain David Paice, whose shocking off-the-ball hit on Willi Heinz looks set to cost him a long ban this week.

But while Irish’s desperate plight at the foot of the table worsens, Kingsholm is beginning to dream of a return to happier days, when they finished top of the Premiership tree in 2003, 2007 and 2008, only to miss out on the trophy. Burns, who was influential in the win over Irish with two tries, admitted: “In previous years I’ve tried not to look at the table because it has been usually pretty bad. But right now it’s great to see where we are. We’re playing well and the guys are getting rewards for all the hard work and effort.

“But it doesn’t really mean a lot in December. It’s been a great little run, but it’s not where you are at Christmas time, it’s where you are in May that matters. The confidence is growing but that comes when you keep walking off the field having won a game. But we are taking those wins well, meaning we are not getting too carried away or above ourselves.

David Paice - Credit:  Getty Images 
David Paice is given his marching orders Credit: Getty Images

“We must keep fighting as a team because we have not achieved anything yet. We’ve shown we can mix it with the best of them this season and we have to keep doing it.

“There are plenty of challenges ahead. The Premiership is such a hard League that if you are just one per cent off for one or two weeks you can soon be heading in the wrong direction. Just look at the teams around us and the competition is incredible for those top four or six places. But I see no reason why we can’t keep developing and moving forward as a team.

“Johan (Ackermann) is keeping us on our toes. We have a little break now domestically, going into Europe for a couple of important games. It goes without saying what a fantastic crowd we have here at Kingsholm, and I hate to say it but they are our 16th man! It’s great to give them plenty to shout about.”

Irish’s Premiership plight is starting to look miserable. Having started with a bang on the opening weekend, with victory over Harlequins at Twickenham, they have failed to win a game since and have just eight points. That is six points adrift of Worcester, and they now face losing influential captain Paice to a lengthy ban for his moment of madness in ploughing into scrum-half Heinz, who was unable to carry on after being knocked to the ground at the end of the first half. Paice’s dismissal not only wrecked Irish’s hopes of a fightback but now threatens to damage them in the weeks ahead. The forward is no stranger to controversy and will discover his fate this week, with director of rugby Nick Kennedy worried he could lose his captain for a busy domestic and European campaign ahead.

Kennedy said: “I don’t know what ban he will get but it will cause us problems right now if he does get one. It’s not my job to work out the weeks and the ban. The citing guy spoke to our team manager, so we will have to wait and see what they say. Then we will make a plan from there.”