London Welsh coach Lyn Jones has saluted his players’ efforts in Saturday’s 39-17 defeat by Stade Francais.

Although the visitors went down to a 39-17 defeat, Jones said he could see the improvement every time Exiles step out onto the field.

“I’m very proud of the effort our boys put in,” said Jones.

“We fronted up and you can’t ask for more than 100 per cent effort from your players.

“It was always going to be a difficult night for us – we were out of the competition so we were playing for pride – but the boys stuck at it.

“We didn’t get the rub of the green in many facets.

“Perhaps the only disappointing factor was some of our discipline wasn’t what it should be for this standard. “Having said that, there were lots of positives to glean, including some individual performances.

“Alex Davies at nine was really good tonight.”

Jones had challenged his squad to put their hands up for selection for when the Aviva Premiership reconvenes with a trip to Welford Road on Saturday, February 9 for the Exiles. Between now and then, Welsh complete their LV= Cup campaign against Harlequins next Saturday and Newport Gwent Dragons.

“We’re building for Premiership rugby now,” he said.

“We need to take a closer look at tonight’s game, last week (versus Cavalieri Prato) and who put their hands up, and start integrating the whole squad into the next two games, so that when we do hit Leicester and we kick off the final run of league games we’ve got good competition,” added Jones.

“This group of players are improving and I can see it in them, and you can’t ask for much more than that.

“I’m quite buoyed by some the habits and abilities coming from some of these boys.

“They’re improving and that’s encouraging.”