London Welsh head coach Rowland Phillips is looking at the bigger picture after his side’s miserable season continued with a 46-0 defeat at Northampton, who secured top spot in the Aviva Premiership for the first time.

Basement boys Welsh, who play their home games in Oxford, were suffering their 21st straight league defeat of the season and their 31st in all competitions on Saturday.

Phillips, though, felt there were good performances from his players that he can build on for next season in the Championship.

“This game was about learning for us and looking to take positives out of the game to build on for next season,” he said. “We have signed some good players for next season.

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“We want to retain as many players from the current squad as possible, and then look to compliment them.

“We don’t have a formula, you know what you need for your team to be competitive and come out of the Championship with the opportunity of promotion. We need to keep the spine of what we have here.”

The Saints ran in six tries with England pair Lee Dickson and Luther Burrell each scoring twice and Ahsee Tuala and Jamie Elliott also touching down as the champions sealed a home semi-final.

Welsh held out for 13 minutes before Dickson picked up and squirmed over, with Stephen Myler converting.

The second try came from full back Tuala, after great work from Ken Pisi, with Myler adding the extras before making it 17-0 at half-time with a penalty.

Myler started the second half with three more points and a minute later Dickson went over from 20 metres for his second try.

Burrell scored from a pop pass by Myler, and then handed-off Olly Barkley to strike again, with James Wilson converting.

With Eddie Aholelei in the sin-bin, Elliott trotted over in the left corner for Saints