AVIVA PREMIERSHIP - LONDON WELSH V GLOUCESTER PREVIEW

RICHARD Thorpe says London Welsh remain confident they will improve after a nightmare start to the season.

Welsh lost 46-8 at Sale Sharks on Saturday, their third straight defeat maintaining an unwanted average of 50 points conceded per match.

Thorpe, who starts at openside flanker for a fourth match running, said: “We weren’t being silly coming into the Premiership.

“We knew it was going to be a very hard challenge.

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“We have got the players to be able to compete at this level, but it is just taking us a bit of time to get to grips with it.

“We feel confident that we will be able to do it.

“There is no point looking backwards. We can only look forwards from now on. It’s a long old season.”

Thorpe stressed the Exiles were working hard on and off the field to end their losing streak.

“We have been spending a lot of time in the analysis room going over exactly what went wrong,” he said.

“We are keen to put things right.

“We are aware of areas where it has been going wrong and what we have got to do.

“Obviously defence is a big issue as the scorelines suggest.

“We need to work hard to be aggressive and get more width.”

While Welsh have ultimately suffered three heavy defeats, Thorpe says there have still been some positive signs.

“We are not standing here saying that we are going to win every game and be in the play-offs,” he said.

“But we need to stay as competitive for as long as we can in games.

“In all three matches, we were in the game, particularly in the first half.

“It is the last quarter we have struggled with. We are at least halfway there.

“We need to stay in the game for the full 80 minutes. We can’t let our foot off the gas.”

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