Delon Armitage fired up to terrorise rivals

Delon Armitage has warned the rest of the Premiership he is back to his best and ready to "terrorise" defences in a bid to win back his England place.

The London Irish full-back had a year to forget last season, a shoulder injury robbing him of not only three months of action but the confidence he built up in his breakthrough 2008-09 campaign.

To make matters worse, he saw Ben Foden usurp him as England No. 15 for the latter part of the Six Nations and into the summer tour of Australasia, the Northampton star displaying the kind of dynamic running for which Armitage made his name a year earlier.

An off-season of introspection and hard work seems to have done the trick for Armitage, however. The 26-year-old produced a try-scoring, man-of-the-match display in Irish's 33-16 win over Saracens at Twickenham on Saturday and suddenly the belief has come oozing back.

"For the first time in a long time, I can say I enjoyed a rugby match," Armitage said.

"I went through a bad six months last season. I was on a downer and it just got worse and worse. I came back from injury, wasn't fully fit and I was kicking the ball away a lot. I put too much pressure on myself.

"But pre-season went really well for me. I went back to basics. This year I've changed the mindset to have a go, play my rugby. Go back to why I was successful in the first place. I want to run the ball and terrorise defences.