FORWARDS coach George Skivington hailed London Irish’s 20-14 victory at Yorkshire Carnegie as a result to be “really happy about” after Exiles made it 16 straight Greene King IPA Championship wins on Sunday.

Tries from Ofisa Treviranus and Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi inspired the visitors to a hard-fought success at their nearest rivals.

Skivington admitted it was a tough day at Headingley and said: “It was a real battle out there. It was physical and there were a few bangs and bruises, but it was good, there was a lot of buzz around the game.

“To win is a real boost because Yorkshire are a quality outfit, particularly up front where they’ve got a very big pack.

“Their maul and scrum is very good and we had to work extremely hard to compete with that. We didn’t get it right one time and they scored a try, so to beat them at their place is something we deserve to be really happy about.”

He continued: “There were some outstanding performances – Lovejoy (Chawatama) came on and dominated his first two scrums and put us in good positions to take some points. “ "That’s what we need – it is a full squad effort, and not just the lads who played here, but the guys who weren’t involved in the game. Those back at home trained really well all week and stepped up, and that’s what keeps the squad competitive.”

The result leaves Nick Kennedy’s men 18 points clear at the summit, but Skivington confessed as the season draws to a conclusion they must work out their best side.

He revealed: “We’ve rotated a lot of players and that’s how we’ve been going all year, which has occasionally led to a bit of dis-jointedness, but we’re very close to the play-offs now so we need to start deciding what our best team is.”

One player who has proved a stand-out for Exiles this season has been centre Fergus Mulchrone, and Skivington praised the 30-year-old after he played a hand in both tries at Carnegie.

He commented: “Fergus’ workrate is phenomenal and it has been all year – he’s a real leader. If you keep working hard all day and chasing things then eventually something’s going to go in your favour and he’s often the catalyst for us.”