London Irish pour cold water on talk of move for Gavin Henson

Henson remains on unpaid leave from the Ospreys and has not played for 18 months after he entered a self-imposed rugby exile following his latest injury setback. His existing Ospreys contract expires at the end of this season and he has been linked with a possible London switch, although Wasps have denied making any moves for him and there appears little prospect of Henson ending up at Irish either, whether on-loan or permanently.

"I've had no contact on that front - the situation is pretty clear from our point of view," said Booth, following yesterday's 23-16 Premiership victory over Gloucester. "It is not us doing Gavin Henson a favour, if he feels he wants to contribute (to the club] we will have a conversation. But we haven't spoken to him, and I don't expect to speak to him. We haven't considered it. It would be my decision, but we haven't held a conversation about it. There is less than a one per cent chance."

On the field, Ryan Lamb punished his former club with an immaculate goal-kicking display as Irish climbed to second place in the Premiership. The Exiles fly-half booted 13 points in a five from five return, condemning Gloucester to their second defeat in three starts this term.

Hooker James Buckland and No 8 George Stowers, who was sent off during last weekend's narrow loss at Bath, added tries in each half to leave Irish three points behind unbeaten leaders Northampton. Irish once again looked title play-off material, even at this early stage, yet Gloucester could find themselves facing a long hard winter.

The only real surprise was that Gloucester clinched a losing bonus point courtesy of wing Lesley Vainikolo's injury time effort that substitute Tim Taylor converted following three earlier Nicky Robinson penalties.

"The facts are the facts, and we dominated the set-pieces from start to finish," added Booth. "Games in the Premiership are hard to win, and today was based on a fantastic scrum performance. It is a simple game built on good set-piece and forward dominance, and our scrum did the damage."

Gloucester conceded 19 penalties in a stop-start Madejski Stadium encounter, and head coach Bryan Redpath accepted his team had paid a price for their indiscipline. "We conceded 19 penalties to Irish's seven or eight. We cut our own throats," said the Scot. "I thought the game was winnable for us from 10-9 behind, and we talked at half-time about the need to be smarter, but there were a lot of penalties and free-kicks at scrum time. Bath had ten losses on the bounce last season and finished in the top four.There is no point getting all panicky about it - we must keep working hard."

David Strettle marked his first start for Saracens with a try as Brendan Venter's side condemned bottom side Leeds Carnegie to a third-successive Aviva Premiership defeat, 26-14.

Strettle touched down in the 26th minute with a clinical effort to register his second try for the club following his summer move from rivals Harlequins. Replacement hooker Schalk Brits added a late second and fly-half Derick Hougaard weighed in with 16 kicked points in a largely uninspiring encounter.