After six weeks of the Aviva Premiership so far, it is clear to see it is going to be a long season for London Welsh if something doesn’t change soon. I believe they can use this four week break for the greater good, with matches in the LV Cup and Challenge Cup respectively, it is a fantastic opportunity to build some confidence.
They are obviously not short of rugby ability, especially after strengthening the squad further this season with the players that have come in. We saw that last season also, when the team masterminded a two-legged victory over Bristol for promotion and held the record of the best defence in the Championship, and having watched them a few last times last season, I will second this as they were simply outstanding defensively. However, as we have seen, the Aviva Premiership is a different prospect.
With their sixth defeat out of six coming against Newcastle last weekend, Justin Burnell said he would use this break to experiment. He went on to say
“It’s a crucial time for us to see where we’re at… These four weeks are about looking at combinations and rest.”
Many would agree with him, the team don’t look fit enough, causing them to hemorrhage points in the back end of the game. They are not lacking attacking prowess, scoring four tries against Bath is no joke, however the defence and fitness needs work.
What they need within these next four weeks is to be competitive in these up coming games and to see if they can get a win under their belt from somewhere, which would do absolute wonders for the teams confidence. Therefore, once they return to the Aviva Premiership arena they can use the confidence to start to put in some credible performance and be competitive in this league.
The performances so far are further emphasising the gap between Championship and Premiership rugby. This is in terms of fitness, resources and quality of player. London Welsh still have sixteen league games to sort it out, but the qualities needed to compete in the Premiership do not develop overnight. For the teams’ sake, and more importantly their fans sake, I hope they do improve, and show the sort of rugby that got them promoted in the first place.
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