TOM Coventry has not given up on his side’s Aviva Premiership survival despite London Irish looking certain to drop into the Championship following Sunday’s 13-6 defeat at Newcastle.

Exiles are now seven points adrift of their north-east rivals – the only other side who could be relegated – and must beat Harlequins at home and Wasps away to give themselves any hope of staying up.

But Kiwi head coach Coventry said: “I’m a positive person and you need to provide a bit of hope for the boys as it’s not mathematically certain that we are down, and it’s not a hopeless situation.

“We are going to have to be really good to beat Quins and Wasps – and we weren’t too far away against Quins at the Stoop in the European quarter-final.”

He added: “We are a competitive team and you can see that from our performances over the last couple of months. There hasn’t been a team that has really got away from us, so we are going to have to manage those moments and find a way to get across the line. We will continue to work hard.”