LONDON Irish second row Franco van der Merwe believes his side can take confidence from their previous success as they seek an Aviva Premiership double at Harlequins on Saturday (3pm).

Exiles defeated their rivals 39-29 on the opening day of the season, and while they sit 10 points adrift at the foot of the table with four games remaining, the South African is in bullish mood.

He said: “Quins is a massive game for us and like us, they have a lot to play for.

“We played very well against them on the opening day and we know that it’s going to be a tough derby this weekend.

“They have a lot of talented individuals in their team and they have a lot of good characters in their team too.

“We can certainly take some confidence from the fact that we beat them earlier in the season, but we just have to control what we can control come Saturday afternoon and hopefully the results will go our way.”

He continued: “We’re still in with a chance of survival and we’re not yet in a position where there is no way we can turn things around.

“For us, this weekend’s game is like a play-off – our fate is a little bit out of our hands, but as long as we are getting results and other teams aren’t picking up points, then we’re still in it.

“We don’t want to look beyond the next game and this Saturday’s game is a massive play-off.”

Recently-appointed technical director Declan Kidney added: “I’m sure Quins will be looking to do a number on us after what happened on the opening day and that just spices up the task even more.

“We’re treating the game as a one-off match, which you’re able to do when you have a two-week break leading into a game and I’m sure they are thinking the same.

“Confidence is a strange word in terms of perception because you could be winning all of your matches and be over confident. Just because the results haven’t gone our way, it doesn’t mean that confidence has been very low.”