For the second time this season London Welsh found themselves on the end of an 11-try mauling, and head coach Justin Burnell conceded it was a very tricky afternoon for the Exiles.

“That was difficult; it was very one-sided,” said Burnell after their 78-7 defeat in the Aviva Premiership on Saturday.

“They’re a good side; that’s why they were in the Premiership and Heineken Cup finals last year. They were just better than us across the board in every aspect.

“For anyone to come off after conceding 78 points and to keep your spirits high is very difficult, but that’s what we’ve got to do.

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We won the Championship to play in the Premiership and it would be quite easy for us all to bury our heads in the sand, but that’s something we can’t do.

“We’ll go back to training on Monday morning and keep working.

“It would be easy to walk away but that’s not in my book, or any of our players.

“The mood is disappointed; when you get a good hiding like that.

“It’s very sombre as you can imagine. It’s not going to be pretty viewing when we watch the match on Monday.”

Still without a win after ten rounds of Premiership action, London Welsh head to nearest rivals London Irish on Boxing Day knowing that victory is crucial to their hopes of survival.

“We’ve got to get something out of that game. It’s a huge game and one that we’ll be going into to get a result,” added Burnell.

“There’s 12 games left and we’re 11 points adrift. We’ve got to pick up three wins out of the next 12 games and hope the teams around you don’t pick theirs up.

“From a mathematical point of view, we can still keep in there.”

l ANDY Goode set a new Premiership points record as Wasps overpowered London Irish 48-16 to make a dream start to life at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena yesterday, following their move from High Wycombe.

The fly-half scored 33 points, in front of a record Premiership crowd of 28,254 at a recognised home ground.

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