Top-six now the minimum requirement for Carnegie

After reviving their Championship promotion play-off hopes 10 days ago against Nottingham, Carnegie took a backward step with their defeat to Rotherham Titans last weekend.

Now 10 points adrift of the play-off spots with six games to play, McGeechan concedes reaching the top four is a ‘difficult’ task.

“It’s disappointing. We know we’ve not performed as well as we should have,” said McGeechan.

“I still thought top four was a possibility but it has been made more difficult by defeat to Rotherham.

“I’d be disappointed if we don’t do enough in this last part of the season to certainly finish top six (they are currently ninth). We’ve had some good performances against Nottingham and Moseley, but we’ve not backed them up and had the consistency that we had last year in the way we’re playing.

“It’s just a matter of regrouping a little bit and making sure we have our priorities right in producing the best rugby to put out there on the field.

“We had such a good mix last year; some of the rugby was incredibly good and we were winning. It was a bit of a roller-coaster ride at times but that type of formula is what we want to get back to.”