Premiership: Justin Burnell frustrated as Welsh lose to Irish

London Welsh coach Justin Burnell could not hide his frustration after his side were beaten 24-9 by fellow exiles London Irish at the Madejski Stadium.

Welsh have now lost all 11 matches they have contested in this season’s Premiership and were hoping to claim a maiden win against lowly Irish who began the match just one place above them in the table.

Burnell said: "It was a game we wanted to win. It was billed as an important game and we are bitterly disappointed for at certain stages, I thought we could win.

"We were able to keep the ball to go into half-time in contention and at 17-9 down midway through the second half we were well in the game."

His opposite number at Irish, Brian Smith, was delighted to grab the points thanks to their three-try display with Alex Lewington, Tom Court and Geoff Cross going over.

Will Robinson kicked all nine points for the visitors and Smith said: "I am relieved but I have mixed emotions as with 10 minutes left I thought we could have squeezed out a bonus point.

"The win was obtained purely on the back of our forwards but at pitch side you could see how difficult conditions were as it was raining heavily and the pitch was very slippery."

Welsh captain Tom May and Irish replacement Dan Leo were sent off in the 34th minute after the former swung an elbow and the latter retaliated by wrestling his opponent to the floor.

And Smith was unhappy: “Dan is very upset and not a thug so we will be strongly defending our boy as we believe he may have been hard done by."