Peter Hewat claimed 15 points in the 20-9 victory in Reading

London Irish boss Brian Smith paid tribute to his team after they reached the Heineken Cup semi-finals for the first time with victory over Perpignan.

The Exiles are playing in the knockout stages of the competition for the first time, and Smith said: "That was an outstanding performance.

"The most pleasing thing was there was no talk that we'd done well getting here and to give it a lash.

"That attitude started in the changing room and the pack laid the platform."

Despite playing in the quarter-finals for the first time, London Irish did not show any nerves and never looked back after making a high-tempo start.

Australian full-back Peter Hewat slotted five penalties to land the man-of-the-match award while Mike Catt set up try-scorer Declan Danaher with a neat chip.

"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.

606: DEBATE Irish on this performance can beat Toulouse or Blues at Twickers! Mike7817

"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."

Smith also praised scrum-half Paul Hodgson, who produced a last-gasp tackle on winger Adrien Plante which prevented Perpignan scoring just before half-time.

"Paul is probably the best cover defensive nine in the Premiership, and probably one of the best I've ever seen. He was outstanding," said Smith.

"That tackle was crucially important and was possibly the turning point of the game."

Perpignan and Scotland lock Nathan Hines admitted London Irish executed their gameplan perfectly.

"They kept us pegged back in our own half and waited until we dropped the ball, which we did a lot," he said.

"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."