London Irish head coach Toby Booth says a "mentality shift" was the secret behind his side's demolition of Leeds Carnegie.
Last season a valuable lesson, says Exiles head coach
London Irish head coach Toby Booth believes that a fresh mentality was the driving force behind his side's 56-7 thrashing of Leeds Carnegie.
The Exiles claimed their second win of the Guinness Premiership season with a seven-try romp at Headingley, earning a bonus-point in the process.
Booth thinks his side have learned some valuable lessons from last season's Premiership final loss to Leicester and are now ready to make a fresh challenge for top honours.
"There's a mentality shift with the players because we have been learning lessons as we go, but there comes a point when you have to start doing things," Booth said.
"This group want to kick on and that's why you saw that sort of performance today.
"The Premiership is a very, very difficult competition. There are some sides who are very well coached and very well financed, and it's a tough ask to win it.
Ambition
"But we are in a position where we want to kick on and achieve things, and all the time we are continually improving.
"If we can continue to maintain that improvement each week then I don't see why we can't be in a good position come next May."
Booth singled out stand-off Ryan Lamb and academy graduate Adam Thompstone, who combined to score 36 points, for special praise.
"We have learned to win ugly and get something out of each game," he added.
"These boys are willing to compete and we want to be able to answer the questions being asked of us.
"We controlled the game from the outset - run, great scrum, a penalty try and that showed me that mentally we were ready to compete.
"We wanted to go and show what we were about. Adam Thompstone has basically grabbed his opportunity with both hands.
"He's another one of our academy boys and that's what we are trying to do here."
Not Happy
Leeds battled hard in the first-half of the contest but were powerless to prevent the visitors from running in five unanswered tries after the break.
The newly-promoted side, considered prime candidates for relegation, have emerged from their first three games with one draw and two defeats.
Director of rugby Andy Key realises his side cannot afford many repeats of Sunday's performance and says the issues will be addressed in time for Leeds' next game.
He said: "If we continue to provide the opposition with so many opportunities it will be a hard-fought season for us. Do I think we will stay up? Absolutely.
"We conceded over 50 points today and no side is going to be happy with that - certainly our players and management aren't.
"We'll be looking to address those issues within the next 24 to 48 hours as we prepare to play Northampton next weekend.
"But we certainly still believe and we'll be measuring ourselves against the sides who we feel we can get a result against."
