It is early in the season and the Premiership is five rounds old but London Welsh’s encounter with their fellow strugglers Newcastle at the Kassam Stadium day has a must-win feel for the Exiles after a traumatic start to their second campaign in the top flight.
It is not just their record of played five, lost five that is gruesome. They have been soundly thrashed on each occasion: 52-0 by Exeter and Harlequins, 53-26 by Bath, 46-8 by Sale and 46-10 by Gloucester. They have scored 44 points and conceded 249, which makes their average score 9-50. They have conceded 33 tries while scoring six, the same number of yellow cards they have received.
Two years ago they made a more heartening start, winning two of their first five games, against Exeter and Sale, and picking up a bonus point against Gloucester. It was not enough to prevent immediate demotion but they took the relegation fight into the final quarter of the season, even though they were undermined by a points deduction. Defeat to Newcastle, the club closest to them, who ended a 20-match losing streak in the Premiership by beating Exeter last Sunday, would leave them marooned with Leicester, Northampton and Saracens to play following a trip to Wasps next week.
“It is clear for everyone to see that it is tough for us at the moment,” said Justin Burnell, London Welsh’s director of rugby. “I believe we can turn things around. If I didn’t, we may as well turn out the lights now and go home. We have to keep plugging away in the best league around which goes up another level each year. We have to compete and that means hard work in a number of areas. We’re very proud to be in the Premiership. We’ve now just got to go up another level and find that magical formula that is missing at the moment. What cannot be questioned is the spirit and work ethic.”
The London Welsh captain, Tom May, will be lining up against the club where he spent 11 years before joining Toulon in 2009. Newcastle were the first Premiership champions, back in 1998, but since then they have finished in the top half of the table twice, sixth in 2000-01 and the following season, and were relegated in 2012 having long flirted with the drop.
“It has been a hard start for us,” said May. “Some aspects have been positive. We scored four tries at Bath and we missed only three tackles in the first half at Harlequins but I know from my time with Newcastle that it is about putting everything together consistently. You do not get away with many mistakes in the Premiership. We know we are in a difficult position but the boys are flying into training and no one is shying away from the task before us.”
Newcastle’s victory over Exeter, their first against the Chiefs in the Premiership, ended an 11-month run of league defeats but they remain the most likely club to be relegated should Welsh rally. The Exiles are already being compared to Rotherham, who were relegated in 2004 after losing all 22 matches, earning a mere three bonus points.
“I remain confident we are moving in the right direction, even if results do not show that,” said May. “The management have been good at making sure we try to build every week and not focus only on the negatives. I know from some of the seasons I had with Newcastle that, if you stick with it, you will come out of the other side at some point. People are understandably going to put tags on Saturday’s game but, whatever happens, there will be a long way to go.
“Newcastle will be feeling like us, convinced that something better will come from the hard work they are putting in. We cannot get carried away no matter what the outcome of the match is. It must not be built up too much and it is worth the same number of points as every other game.”
Newcastle’s director of rugby, Dean Richards, called on his players not just to back up Sunday’s performance but to improve on it after naming an unchanged side. “We probably played to 65% of our capacity against Exeter,” he said. “It will be like a cup final for London Welsh who will want to get one over on the team closest to them in the table. They are not a bad side.
“It is whether or not it clicks for them on the day and so far it has not. It might be this week, it might be the next. You never know but it will be a hard, bruising encounter and we are treating them with maximum respect.”
