LONDON Welsh assistant coach Gordon Ross said his side under-performed in yesterday’s defeat at Newcastle Falcons.

The hosts scored six tries, with three first-half scores coming in a seven-minute spell which effectively ended any hopes Welsh may have had of sparking a fightback.

“It’s a big disappointment,” Ross said after the match.

“Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that we didn’t make Newcastle work too hard for their tries.

Latest Sport news

“We were pretty soft at times in defence and we kept turning over possession and giving them field position and from that they scored pretty easily.

“The conditions weren’t easy, but that’s no excuse.

“It’s a massive gap between us and Newcastle and London Irish now, but we have to keep improving.

“We played quite well last week against Harlequins, but today was a backward step.

“The guys trained well during the week and we were expecting a good performance, but we didn’t step up to the plate and we were well off the pace.”

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.