English Premiership: John O'Sullivan talks to London Irish director of rugby Brian Smith on his hopes for the new season

New broom, new faces, new hope and a brand spanking new London Irish set-up to underpin a season of expectation. Brian Smith is at the helm, the Exiles board of management loosened the purse strings and the summer has brought even more accents to an already cosmopolitan Sunbury.

The club will once again play their home Guinness English Premiership matches at the Madejski Stadium in Reading, a venue that's beginning to feel more homely than mere rented accommodation. Last season London Irish guaranteed their premiership status in a Russian roulette last day shoot-out that could have seen any one of several teams plunge through the relegation trap door.

Forewarned about the demands that would face them in a new season, one of the final acts of the departing Conor O'Shea was to bring in Smith as director of rugby.

The former Irish outhalf was recruited from Japanese side Ricoh and quickly set about revamping the players and the style of rugby.

The scope for improvement was massive.

Irish had produced a turgid, one dimensional, mind-numbing style of rugby that was becoming increasingly predictable, a fact reflected in their results. They went from being a difficult side to beat under South African Brendan Venter, rewarded in a Powergen Cup success, to a team for whom tries were like hen's teeth. They have subsumed the creative gene.

Despite the torpor of many of their performances they managed to retain their large core of loyal supporters. Irish needed radical surgery to their patterns and new faces to implement them. Smith promises to deliver both.

French flanker Olivier Magne, Argentinean backrow tyro Jean Manuel Leguizamon, New Zealanders Riki Flutey and Michael Collins, Australian rugby league star Paul Franze and Samoan Dominic Feaunati have been added to the squad along with former Ireland A scrumhalf Ben Willis, the latter having spent a year at Beziers.

Smith knew that there were several playing issues to address. "Brendan's (Venter) were fresh at the time. They introduced the blitz defence and were successful for a time. Over the past three seasons that style of attack, very structured, is too easy to predict as defences are getting better all the time. When your under pressure you go back to it as a touchstone.

"Thirty per cent of tries are scored from first phase. If you're not trying to score from first phase then you are denying yourself. It is about adding another layer to it (attacking), trying to change the way we attack.

"I don't expect it to bed down over night. The better opposition we play against the bigger the test. We have got to be prepared to risk losing occasionally."

Smith maintains that his attitudes and philosophies haven't changed much from his playing days. "I don't think it'd be right for a coach not to be themselves. If you're naturally a hard-nosed bloke then so (be it). I like attention to detail, done properly.

"I know that if you smother the guys, if we are focusing on the mistakes rather than the opportunities we're creating, then we're just going to condition guys not to take chances. (You have to) force the envelope and know where the line is. If you're predictable, then you're too easy to defend. Yeah, we might blow it but (why not) aspire to be a team like New Zealand. Positive rugby can be a winning culture."

Smith considers himself pragmatic but still contends that a top-six place and therefore a ticket into European competition is not beyond London Irish this season. He sees that as a minimum requirement with a top-four place the upper echelon of his ambition over the present campaign.

To achieve that Irish will have to win twice as many games as they did last season: a tall order for a collection of individuals that have yet to prove themselves a team.

The pre-season has hinted that the Exiles can realise one or two of the benchmarks they have set themselves. "We have started out on a long-term plan to change the fortunes of this ambitious club by playing not only good, entertaining rugby but also winning rugby. We want to be a real force in the game and realise that will not happen overnight. It is a massive task to go from 10th in the league to the top four but it is achievable."

On Saturday they'll be able to road test that ambition when they travel to play Leeds Tykes. As a starting point for the new regime it'll be a pretty decent barometer of the road they'll have to travel.