Dermody joined Irish from the Highlanders in 2007

London Irish prop Clarke Dermody has said he is looking forward to the challenge of scrumming down against former team-mate Carl Hayman.

The two will meet when London Irish take on Newcastle at Kingston Park, having played together in New Zealand.

Dermody told BBC Berkshire: "Carl's one of the best in the world, so that makes for a pretty tough day at the office.

"He's the sort of guy you don't want to get many things wrong against because he can exploit it pretty quickly."

Dermody and Hayman played in the same Highlanders team in New Zealand, along with another Newcastle player, Filipo Levi.

"You want to play in the best competitions against the best players - it's a good gauge of where you're at," Dermody continued.

"I've been quite lucky as I've been playing mostly with him rather than against him. When I have played against him I feel like I've done all right.

"He's a really good friend - a top guy. He's pretty quiet, but then all front-rowers are like that."

Having lost to Bath 22-35 last weekend in Reading, Dermody said the team have been in a determined mood during training this week.

"You could call it a bit of attitude setting. We were obviously frustrated but we've trained hard on a short turn-around.

"It was needed to get everyone in the right mind-set to go up to Newcastle, which is always a tough game."

With a heavy pitch at Kingston Park, Dermody is predicting a forward-dominated encounter.

"We might get more of the ball and we'll have to control things a bit more. It's up to the play-callers, but I'd imagine it'll be a forwards battle."

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