London Irish's Hassell-Collins scores four tries in win against Gloucester

The 21-year-old has enjoyed an impressive season in the Gallagher Premiership

OLLIE Hassell-Collins has continued his stunning form for London Irish as he scored four tries in their 24-20 win over Gloucester at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

The 21-year-old took his tally for the season to seven tries and Irish moved up to sixth in the Gallagher Premiership following their third straight win.

The former St Bartholomew’s School pupil has featured in the majority of Exiles’ league fixtures this season and he admitted how grateful he is for the chance to play.

He said: "I feel the season’s gone well for me – I’ve been given the opportunities from the coaches and I’m enjoying playing at the moment.

"I’m learning massively from this.

"Playing against the top players is something I’m really happy with, but I am going to keep aiming to improve and hopefully I’ll keep getting the opportunities."

With Saracens already confirmed as relegated, the young winger doesn’t believe Irish have changed their approach heading into games.

He said: "It hasn’t changed our mindset at all – we’ll keep taking one game at a time and hopefully keep getting the wins.

"The Gloucester game was a big one for us. We said we needed to give our fans something to cheer about at home games and I think we delivered that for them."

* picture courtesy of London Irish

Hassell-Collins’ four tries took him on to seven for the season, joint top with Gloucester’s Louis Rees-Zammit and Wasps winger Zach Kibirige.

Although the 21-year-old is leading the scoring for Irish, he has praised the support from his teammates.

"It has been big work for me to get off my wing and keep getting involved in the games and points wise it’s my job to score tries.

"I’ll keep doing that for the team, but the credit comes from the inside the hard work they put in to give me the opportunities to score the tries.

"It’s always helpful having those guys around me especially Waisake Naholo because he’s very experienced wing and has given me some good advice.

"There’s always improvements I can make from each game, so I’ll keep reviewing and hopefully keep improving."

Although Hassell-Collins has represented England under-20s in last year’s Six Nations, the winger is determined to keep his attention on club rugby.

"I’m going to keep improving hopefully I play well for Irish, that’s my main focus at the moment," he added.

Hassell-Collins will be aiming to maintain his recent excellent form for Irish, when they host Wasps at Madejski Stadium on Sunday (2.30pm).

- For more rugby news, head over to our designated rugby section.