CHIEF Dean Ryan has labelled London Irish as “dangerous” opponents who “will throw everything” at Worcester Warriors in tomorrow’s showdown at Sixways (5.30pm).

Ryan believes Irish’s scrum “will be a huge challenge” for Warriors, who are aiming for a fourth successive Aviva Premiership win for the first time in their history.

Bottom-of-the-table Irish deservedly defeated Warriors 20-13 at the Madejski Stadium last month but have not picked up an away Premiership win this term.

Warriors have won four of their last five matches and know a victory against Irish would be a huge stride towards Premiership safety.

“Irish are on a decent run of form in terms of where they started from and are a dangerous opponent,” said director of rugby Ryan.

“We have analysed them and they obviously caused us problems in a disappointing performance at their place last month. I was struggling after that game to explain why we played so poorly.

“It was one blot as I don’t think we played poorly against Saracens. We were a clear second best. Sometimes you struggle to see where a poor performance comes from. We didn’t expect it.

“I don’t think we necessarily found the answer to why it happened but we recognised, as a group, it wasn’t up to the standards we set ourselves.

“We set about trying to change that and since then we’ve played some reasonable rugby.”

Irish bossed the scrum and breakdown in February and Warriors were fortunate to pick up a losing bonus point.

Ryan said: “We need all the supporters to understand where we are and that we can’t get ahead of ourselves after three wins.

“Irish pushed numbers into contact last month but we have managed our attack better and having Francois Hougaard around contact is a significant threat.

“There are perceptions from people about Irish based purely on league position and they are not fair. They have a good scrum, which gave us problems.

“Their scrum tore Gloucester apart last weekend and it will be a huge challenge for us, so it’s an area we have to get right.

“Irish are very committed and, with their backs against the wall due to their league position, will throw everything at it. We have to be very accurate to get rid of that threat.”