Guiness Premiership / Ralph Ellis / 02 October 2009 / Leave a comment

After announcing themselves as credible title challengers last season, London Irish have kept up the good work and could go top if they beat Sale tonight. Ralph Ellis salutes their World Cup-winning coach....

"London Irish - 4.5 points is trading between [1.75] and [1.95] and if they are going to win it’s likely to be by a lot."

Good players don't always make great coaches. Being blessed with wonderful talent doesn't necessarily mean you can teach those skills to others who weren't handed the same gifts.

So when a player like Mike Catt, one time England captain and the man whose arrival at scrum-half transformed the 2003 World Cup team into winners, hangs up his boots one day and starts coaching the next, you can never be sure how it will turn out. Happily for London Irish the answer seems to have been "very well".

Catt was an inspirational attacking force in his last few years as a player, always seeming to find the right balance between accurate kicking and looping the ball away down the line. And his impact since signing up to work with Toby Booth at the Madejski Stadium has been quite sensational.

Irish can go top of the table tonight by winning tonight at Sale, but have already shown their potential to build on last season's remarkable breakthrough. A bit like Liverpool when they were top at Christmas, they didn't quite have the staying power to remain there. Unlike Rafa Benitez, though, Booth seems to have found a recipe to keep improving at the start of this campaign.

Catt, at 37, was told by Booth that he had to pack in as a player at the end of last season if he wanted his coaching career to develop. He so nearly ended it in style, but Irish couldn't quite handle the last hurdle of a superb season and lost the Guinness Premiership final to Leicester Tigers. And he's admitted today that he still misses playing. "I miss the feelings that come with playing and winning. Strange though it might sound I want to feel sore and have a few knocks the morning after a game. But I'm a coach now and I've got to get used to it."

It seems he'll be a good coach too, as his belief in flair and attack has been picked up by his players in devastating style. London Irish have scored 14 tries already this season, that's nine more than leaders Saracens.

That progress is reflected by a price of [1.6] for them to win this evening - but it means there's value in backing them to continue their free spirited style. London Irish - 4.5 points is trading between [1.75] and [1.95] and if they are going to win it's likely to be by a lot. If you can back them anywhere near even money it's a bargain.

Five things you might not know about Toby Booth

1. He started out playing amateur rugby for Blackheath while working as an electrician - and says he got his management skills from dealing with other building site workers

2. A chance meeting with New Zealand coach Graham Henry got him interested in coaching

3. He quit his job and went to University where he got a BSc in biology - and tested out his rugby theories coaching the St Mary's College team

4. He got a job in charge of the London Irish academy and brought through many of the club's current side. When he was thinking about whether to take the top job they rang him from a drunken stag party in Spain to tell him he was the right man to step up

5. He met Allan Ryan, the London Irish conditioning coach, at University and they have worked together and been close friends since. Their sons were born within a day of each other

Tags: Guinness Premiership Rugby Betting, London Irish, Mike Catt, Ralph Ellis, Rugby Union Betting Odds, Rugby Union Betting Tips, Sale