London Welsh head coach James Buckland has warned his men they will need to tighten things up when they head to Championship table-toppers London Irish this weekend.

The former Irish hooker praised his forwards after his exiles outmuscled Jersey Reds 23-18 at Old Deer Park to avoid a third consecutive league defeat.

An Adam Kwasnicki double and one for Miles Mantella saw Welsh come from 12-3 down to triumph and Buckland admitted his men could not afford to give his former employers the same head start at the Madejski stadium tomorrow.

“Our pack has been a bit too quiet recently, but the boys really stepped up against Jersey,” he said.

“The reality is that if our pack isn’t on top then the opposition’s is. So there is no choice, but to go out with the intention of being dominant.

“Ideally we wouldn’t put ourselves in that situation [12-3 down], but it’s pleasing that we were able to turn it around.”

He added: “Irish are flying and are everyone’s favourites.

“We allowed Jersey to throw the ball around and their back three caused us problems so we need to look at a few of the decisions we made that allowed them to do that.

“We won’t get away with those freebies against Irish.

“We will prepare to give ourselves the best opportunity of going there and putting in a decent 80 minutes and see where it gets us.”

Saturday’s win has Welsh up to fifth in the table.