Jamie Gibson eyes long run in London Irish first team

Gibson represented England U20s last season as well as London Irish

London Irish flanker Jamie Gibson is aiming for an extended run in the squad after recovering from a broken leg.

The 20-year-old suffered the injury in pre-season but has been involved for the last four fixtures.

Gibson told BBC Berkshire: "This season so far has progressed in almost identical fashion to last.

"If I can keep going this way and aim to be involved in the squad for every game this season, then I'd be exceeding expectations again."

Gibson returned for Irish against Ospreys in January and could replace Chris Hala'Ufia, who is serving an eight-week ban, in the side to face Newcastle Falcons on Saturday.

And having only just returned to action the flanker singled out his appearnace at Munster in the Heineken Cup as a highlight of the season so far.

"Both of the Heineken Cup games were huge for me," he said. "I was playing against players I've been watching since I was nine or 10 years old, like David Wallace who I've always seen as a hero, to play against him was good fun."

The Exiles ended their 10-match losing run against Ospreys before beating Northampton in the LV= Cup.

But they remain without a win in the Premiership since October and Gibson says they all know the importance of this weekend's home match against Newcastle.

"It'll be a tough training week but we'll be up for the weekend," he said. "The season could hinge on it. We may have to grind it out a little bit against Newcastle. If we can switch it on it could make all the difference for the rest of the season."

Gibson continues to balance a professional rugby career with studying Classics at University College, Oxford and the pressure is on this term with exams coming up.

"I've a bit of a nightmare reading list at the moment, with exams in four or five weeks," he admitted. "There's a bit of Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Aristophanes - a bit of everything.

"It's got tougher recently, as the rugby intensity has picked up massively over the last three or four weeks and the work's picked up too.

"But I'm still enjoying it. I have to get my head round a bit of revision over the next few weeks, but it's been good fun."