Irish must bring away form back home

The Exiles have produced two stunning away performances so far in this year's competition but have lost their only group match played at home.

Irish caused a huge stir with an opening day triumph at European Champions Leinster before securing a bonus-point victory over Brive in France last Saturday.

But sandwiched between those two memorable wins was a shock home defeat to the Scarlets and Malone knows that a similar result will not be acceptable when his side host Brive this weekend.

"Our last away win in the Heineken Cup was against Leinster and we didn't back it up with a win against the Scarlets," said Malone, who was in fine form during Saturday's 36-3 win over the 1997 Heineken Cup winners.

"It's been a while since we put in a good performance at home, so we're just concentrating on that."

Despite the one-sided nature of their win in France, Malone knows that the return match will be far from a formality.

Brive beat Toulouse in the French league less than a fortnight ago and Malone is aware of their ability to trouble any side on any given day.

The former Bath and Harlequins stand-off expects Brive to be hell bent on revenge, although he admits that victory on French soil has given Irish plenty of confidence to continue employing a wide and expansive game plan.

"They would probably be disappointed with the way they played and will come all guns blazing this weekend," added Malone.

"But ultimately we put them under a lot of duress throughout the whole game with the width and the tempo which we played and that's stressful for a defence and eventually we broke them down.

"I remember at the start of the season when I was still injured watching us play and thinking, if you were a neutral, London Irish are the team you'd want to watch. We want to get back to playing that way."

Malone is currently locked in a two-way battle for the London Irish No10 shirt with fellow summer signing Ryan Lamb.

The ex-Australian U21 international began the season on the sidelines but has since asserted his authority and pressed for regular inclusion in the starting XV.

And with both Malone and Lamb producing the goods when selected, head coach Toby Booth has a tough choice to make on who will call the tune this Saturday.

But whoever gets the nod against Brive in Reading, Malone knows that rotation will continue to play a key role in the Exiles' season and that victory is really the only thing that matters.

"Both of us are mature enough to realise that's how it's got to be.

"Hopefully we're both in good form, so the coaches could pick either of us. The season's that long that you need both guys playing well.

"Lamby probably got the jump on me a bit, so he's played a few more games, but who knows what will happen in the second half of the season.

"The job is to get the team around the park, to play the corners and to make sure we're making the right calls at the right times. On Saturday, predominantly, we did that.

"But the most important thing is whether he plays 10 or I play 10, London Irish win."