London Welsh remain upbeat and will keep fighting despite still being winless after nine Aviva Premiership games, said assistant coach Ollie Smith.

Smith felt Welsh showed continued improvement in their 43-14 defeat against top-of-the-table and reigning champions Northampton Saints.

“On the whole, it was an improved performance,” he said.

“Our skill level was up and above where it’s been in recent weeks so we got far more continuity to our attack and we threatened Northampton at times.

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“Bar the odd stray pass here and there, we could probably have another score or two on the board which would have been a huge bonus for us.

“We scored two good tries and showed at times we could compete.”

But he added: “We have got to learn that when those opportunities come along, we have got to take them and then at other times we have got to be a little bit more sensible.”

He described the sin-binning of Ricky Reeves – when Saints scored three converted tries in the prop’s absence – as a “very silly penalty.”

“They scored three tries in that period,” he commented.

“That’s not to say that if he had been on the pitch, we would have stopped them, but he might have cost us a couple of tries in that period,” he added.

Nick Scott passes to London Welsh captain Tom May just before he is tackled

Northampton Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder was satisfied with the win and performance.
“We had to work hard, particularly in the first half,” he said.
“Thankfully, the forwards just got on top a little bit, particularly in the maul.
“But give a lot of credit to London Welsh. They played well, tested us, came back and scored two good tries themselves.”
And Mallinder had words of encouragement for the Exiles.
“It was a good performance (from them),” he said.
“I think that particularly in the first half it was our pack who finally got on top.
“I think they showed throughout the 80 minutes, they are a good side.”

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