Booth was forwards coach before Brian Smith's departure to England

London Irish players have paid tribute to head coach Toby Booth, as the Exiles reached the Premiership play-offs.

Booth took over at Irish in the summer, following Brian Smith's departure.

Scrum-half Paul Hodgson told BBC Radio Berkshire: "He was the head coach the players wanted and we've talked about a bit of pay-back for him.

"It's not just about doing it for ourselves and the fans; Toby deserves this. He's a calm, astute, thoughtful coach and he's been outstanding."

Flanker Declan Danaher, who along with Hodgson was a try scorer in the 32-15 win at Worcester, said he thought this was as good a team as he had played in.

"It's up there with the team that won the Powergen Cup all those years ago," he said.

"It's a great side and it's going places - and lot of that is to do with [coaches] Toby Booth, Mike Catt, BJ Mather and Neal Hatley.

"We've always had the players but we now have the people pointing us in the right direction and getting us to do the right things and you can see it's happening for us now."

Irish last reached the Premiership play-offs three years ago when they were beaten at Leicester.

Danaher said although the personnel was largely the same, this time the team was more mature.

"The majority of this squad made the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup last year and there's a lot of players who went up to Leicester in the play-offs three years ago.

"We've a real fighting chance this time. At Leicester three years ago we struggled - we weren't ready for it. But we're ready for this challenge now."

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