London Irish fly-half Ian Humphreys has called on his side to perform in front of a home crowd against Leicester Tigers on Saturday.
Irish sit 11th in the Aviva Premiership table, just six points clear of bottom club Sale Sharks, with the worst defensive record in the league having shipped 291 points after their first ten matches.
The Exiles last outing saw them receive a 47-3 hammering from Gloucester with many first team stars absent, but new signing Humphreys believes that Irish can compete with the rest of the league ahead of Leicester's visit to the Madejski Stadium this weekend.
"Importantly we are at home against Leicester and for our fans we have got to start putting in some performances at the Madejski," said Humphreys to the London Evening Standard.
"It has been frustrating for those who turn out to watch us and we are determined to give them something to cheer.
"We have got about six or seven more home games to go and that is where we need to start delivering if we are to move up the table.
"I think it is fair enough to say that we have underachieved so far if you look at our squad. On paper our strongest team is pretty strong and there have been glimpses of what we can do in games.
"Now we have to start doing it for 80 minutes and not just for 20-minute or 40-minute spells here and there.
"There isn't anything wrong with the system we are playing, it is down to individual errors, mistakes in defence or in attack, and they are proving costly. We have to prevent them from happening.
"But there is enough time between now and the end of the season to go on a good run. The Challenge Cup is probably gone now, but there are opportunities still in the league and in the LV= Cup to do well."
"We have a big game at Twickenham against Harlequins to come, and on Saturday we play Leicester. We tend to save our best performances for the bigger games and hopefully we can do that again."
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