Burnell: Welsh must learn quickly from mistakes

London Welsh head coach Justin Burnell says that they will have to learn quickly from their 0-52 defeat to Exeter Chiefs in the Aviva Premiership.

The Exiles were given a baptism of fire on the Club’s return to the Aviva Premiership at the Kassam Stadium, as the Chiefs ran in seven tries in the season opening contest.

Welsh now travel to Bath on Saturday knowing they must eradicate the errors from Sunday’s performance from their game, so ruthlessly capitalised on upon by Exeter.

“For is it’s not a case of regrouping, or any of those cliches, it’s about getting back in to work, learning from your mistakes and rectifying them,” said Burnell.

“At crucial times I felt there were opportunities, but we squandered them, we split ball and in fairness to Exeter they capitalised on our turnovers.

“When you’ve got possession you’ve got to keep hold of it and come out of the green zone with points.

“It’s ten months and we knew what it was about. You can either go home now and hide away or you can stick your chest out, and rock up to work and learn from it. We’re down in Bath and we’ll look forward to that.”

Welsh trailed 17-0 at half-time with Thomas Waldrom crossing twice for the visitors, but five second half tries saw the Chiefs pull away.

“We missed too many tackles. And Exeter capitalised on it,” added Burnell.

“When people are making individual errors, that’s absolutely nothing to do with the amount of signings you make.

“If you’re a professional player it’s irrelevant if you’ve come in to the team for the first time – you’ve got to make your tackles, you’ve got to make that final pass and you’ve got to hold on to it.”

The Club continues to reinforce its relationship with the people, businesses and communities across Oxfordshire and has adopted the strap-line ‘Premiership Rugby in Oxford – Be part of it’.