London Irish boss Brian Smith says self-belief was the key to the Exiles beating Perpignan.
Exiles boss pinpoints self-belief in reaching semi-finals.
London Irish boss Brian Smith says self-belief was the key to the Exiles beating Perpignan to make the Heineken Cup semi-finals for the first time.
The Exiles are in the Heineken Cup knock-out stages for the first time, but they defeated Perpignan 20-9 to make it all the way to the last four of the competition.
After their Madejski victory, Irish will now face either Toulouse or Cardiff at Twickenham tie three weeks time and their confidence will be sky-high.
"That was an outstanding performance and was very controlled," said Smith.
"The most pleasing thing was there was no talk around the club during the build-up that we'd done well getting here and to give it a lash.
"That attitude started in the changing room and the forwards went out and laid the platform. There's a lot of belief in this side.
"We deserve to be in a Heineken Cup semi-final and we'll know in three weeks' time if we deserve to go on from there."
Catt star
Australian full-back Peter Hewat kicked five penalties, while after some constant pressure Mike Catt unlocked the Perpignan defence with his chip setting up try-scorer Declan Danaher.
"At the 10 minute mark I thought we'd gone through our entire play book," added Smith.
"We had all the possession and had run them ragged, but nothing had come off.
Then Catt's sublime little dink to Danaher set us off."
Irish scrum-half Paul Hodgson also came in for praise from Smith for his defensive display - including a try-saving tackle on winger Adrien Plante.
"Paul is probably the best cover defensive nine in the Premiership, and probably one of the best I've ever seen," Smith beamed.
"He was outstanding.
"That tackle was crucially important and was possibly the turning point of the game."
Pack Pride
Man of the Match Hewat paid tribute to the forward pack which got the better of the tough Perpignan forwards in the second half.
"It was one of those days when things came off," said Hewat. "We discussed during the week the things we wanted to work on and they were evident.
"The pack was awesome which makes things a lot easier at the back. They were a pleasure to play behind."
Perpignan and Scotland international lock Nathan Hines admitted Irish deserved the win, and was impressed at the way they executed their plans.
"They kept us pegged back in our own half and waited until we dropped the ball, which we did a lot," Hines admitted.
"I don't think we lacked ambition, we just weren't given an opportunity to implement our tactics.
"When we did get hold of the ball we were worried about losing it because we were making so many errors."
