London Welsh head coach Justin Burnell was left smarting after the Exiles shipped 50 points for a second time in six days, but remains adamant that they can compete in the top flight.

Welsh have now conceded 14 tries in their opening two fixtures and not even a four-try bonus point could lesson Burnell’s frustration on Saturday.

“I’m never going to be happy,” he said.

“It would be nice to walk away and say we scored four tries and got a bonus point, but at the end of the day it’s 53 points.

“We’ve rectified other areas because we got points on the board this week, but if you allow 53 points you won’t beat nobody,” he said.

“That’s what we’ve got to rectify. We’ll get there; I’ve no doubt in that. We will come good.”

Missed tackles was the source of Burnell’s irritation – a significant contributing factor to the Exiles’ defeat.

“Individual players have to make tackles. Last week we saw too many individual errors,” he added.

“You come to the Rec against a Bath side who should be in the play-offs with the squad they’ve got and you score four tries and you’re able to compete.

“But it keeps coming down to the same old thing, that one-on-one individual error.

“We were shocking last week. We had to put a performance together.

“We put a performance together, but the one area which was a concern last week, unfortunately, was the same area this week.

“I think we’re more than capable of competing physically, but that’s the area we’ve got to get right. It’s nothing to do with system structures.

“I would be more concerned if we were getting destroyed in every other aspect. I don’t think we are.”

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