Scoreline was unfair, says Rowland Phillips as London Welsh lose again

Tom Varndell’s hat-trick condemned relegated Welsh to a 19th successive league defeat as the visitors ran in six tries at Oxford’s Kassam Stadium.

The defeat leaves Phillips’ side on just one bonus point at the bottom of the table.

However, the Welshman felt the Exiles’ performance in their penultimate home game of a poor season was another step in the right direction.

“The scoreline did not reflect our performance,” he said.

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“I thought we were competitive, we created opportunities and defended well.

“Those who watched the game would have seen we contained whatever Wasps threw at us fairly comfortably.”

Varndell went over twice in the opening 11 minutes to give Wasps a 12-0 lead.After pinning Wasps back, Welsh No 8 Opeti Fonua went over for an unconverted try and reduced the deficit to seven points at the break.

Full back Will Robinson kicked a penalty to edge Welsh even closer, but Wasps were far more clinical in the second half.

A catch and drive saw hooker Ashley Johnson go over.

Then Elliot Daly showed great hands to release Varndell for his hat-trick, with Andy Goode converting both tries.

Welsh though were not to be deterred and Chris Elder broke clear to cross in the corner for a try on his Pre - miership debut.

However, the visitors added to their tally with Sailosi Tagicakibau and Alapati Leiua touching down for converted scores late on.

London Welsh: Robinson, Stegmann, Reynolds, May (J Lewis 69), Elder (Dobson 11 (Elder 21)), Roberts (Barkley 46), R Lewis (Rowley 69), Trevett (Aholelei 72), Britton (Dobson 76), Cooper (Gilding 72), West (McNally 63), Corker, Browne, Waters (Thorpe 63), Fonua.

Wasps: Masi, Varndell (Johnson 72), Daly (Downey 66), Leiua, Tagicakibau, Goode (Lozowski 66), Simpson (Davies 59), Mullan (McIntyre 66), Johnson (Jones 59), Cooper-Woolley (Cittadini 76), Cannon, Gaskell, Haskell, Young (Festuccia 51), Thompson.

Attendance: 4,015.