Leicester Tigers club captain Tom Youngs says his side are frustrated not to have built on the positives of their Round 3 win over Gloucester.

Tigers travelled to London Irish on Sunday in their fourth Gallagher Premiership game of the season, but were blown away by three first-half tries at the Madejski Stadium before becoming bogged down in an arm wrestle after the break.

“We were very much in our own half for a lot of that first 20 minutes, and to be fair to Irish they did well there and did a good job on us,” the hooker explained.

“We didn’t ride the storm particularly well. We had our opportunities and we didn’t take them, and in rugby or in any sport, if you don’t take your opportunities then you’re not going to stay in the fight for very long.

“I made it clear to the boys [on Saturday], just because you train well all week, doesn’t mean you rock up on Sunday and win. Your mentality has to be right, and maybe that was off today.”

Tigers now take a break from Premiership action as they face a new challenge in the European Challenge Cup against Pau this Saturday (November 16, 3.00pm) and Cardiff Blues next week (Saturday, November 23, 8.00pm).

And, after reflecting on the first four rounds of the league campaign, Youngs said the squad must draw on their win last time out at Welford Road.

He continued: “We’re four games in; let’s not get away from that. The problem is, too many people have taken from last year’s season into this season, and that really frustrates me.

“This is a whole fresh new season now … but things are never as quick as you want them to be.

“We’ve blocked these four games up and we haven’t got out exactly what we wanted to get out.

“If you look at the Gloucester game, that’s the sort of game that we’re looking at as a positive. Unfortunately we didn’t bring that over to this London Irish game, which is a real shame.”

However, with summer signings Tomás Lavanini and Jordan Taufua both making their club debuts in the last two games, plus head coach Geordan Murphy preparing to welcome back six of England’s Rugby World Cup stars, the skipper insists there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“We’ve got some key boys coming in,” Youngs added. “We’ve got those England boys coming in now which will boost the group, and they’ll have the bit between their teeth after what happened to them a couple of weeks ago.

“There are some great additions to come in, ready to go and help us out there.”