LONDON Welsh head coach Lyn Jones pulled no punches in his assessment of his side’s heavy defeat in Devon.

The Exiles crashed to their 12th loss of their Aviva Premiership campaign to stay deep in the mire at the wrong end of the table.

But the manner of this performance angered Jones.

“I feel like apologising to the crowd because they came along for a contest and we really didn’t compete,” said Jones.

“I don't know if Exeter were really that good or we were that bad, it may be a mixture of both. You can’t take anything away from Exeter because they scored five very good tries.

“It was probably our worse performance of the season and everything that we did turned to dirt really.

“We scored one try and we had enough field position to possibly score more points.

“But we weren't good enough and the Exeter defence was tight and well disciplined unlike ours. “We have to go away and take a look at what we are doing to make sure that what we are doing is the right thing.

“There is still a long way to go and we have played well in the past couple of weeks.

“We are not going to panic, but today was a backward step.”

Welsh were right in contention for 30 minutes, when the odd Gareth Steenson penalty in seven was all that divided the sides.

Jack Yeandle’s close-range try saw the home side lead 19-9 at half-time, but the feeling was that Welsh were capable of getting something out of the match.

However, the floodgates opened after the break as Tom Hayes, Damian Welch, Sireli Naqelevuki and Jack Nowell all crossed.

Phil MacKenzie’s second try in a week was the Exiles’ sole reply and proved little consolation.

There were bright moments in attack from Welsh during the early stages – Neil Briggs bursting away from a ruck, with Jonathan Mills and Adam Balding then linking up in the lead up to Henson giving Welsh a 6-3 lead.

But there were also opportunities missed.

Nick Scott found space down the left and although his pass inside failed to find a red jersey, a Chiefs hand presented Welsh with a lineout five metres out. Referee Andrew Small, however, penalised Welsh from that, and Exeter went straight down the other end and levelled at 6-6.

To rub salt into the wounds, London Irish’s 30-19 win over Wasps yesterday sees the Exiles drop a place, leaving just basement boys Sale below them in the table.

  • Sale Sharks club captain David Seymour, the former Chinnor flanker, has signed a new contr-act, believed to be for three years.