Sometimes simple is best for Burnell

Justin Burnell will urge his players to keep things simple after London Welsh's bonus point winning run came to an end against Cornish Pirates.

After three bonus point victories on the bounce, the Exiles were forced to settle for three tries in a 20-5 win at Mennaye Field that was still good enough to move them up to second in the Greene King IPA Championship table.

But despite those three well taken scores from Nick Scott, Daniel Browne and Carl Kirwan, the Exiles were left to rue several missed chances which ultimately saw them miss out on a bonus point.

"Sometimes we try to over-elaborate things when a simple catch and pass is best, and we would have had more tries,” said Burnell.

"We scored three spectacular tries, but it was just those missed opportunities. You've just got to let the ball do the work."

"Are we happy with the performance? I guess we're never going to be happy because we're obviously aspiring to be a better team. There's always things you can work on, but it was a good win.”

It was a day of mixed feelings, therefore, for the Exiles. No bonus point, but a fourth consecutive win was enough to lift them above Leeds Carnegie in the table and into second place.

"Would we have taken the win before hand? Of course we would. It puts us second in the league and three points adrift of Bristol,” said Burnell.

"However as the game unfolds frustration sets in because we missed five clear opportunities to score tries. It could have been eight tries - that's the disappointing part for me."

"But it's still all to play for and we just want to be in that top four and in a good position come the business end of the season.”

The Exiles came within minutes of keeping the Pirates scoreless at Mennaye Field – a ground the Pirates hadn't tasted defeat at in the league since September against Leeds.

"Would we have been happy with 20-0? Would we have been happy with the bonus point and then conceding one? We missed out on both aspects – we didn't nil them and we didn't get the bonus point, so that's disappointing” said Burnell.

Welsh's busy March schedule now sees them focusing on the visit of Bedford Blues to the Kassam Stadium next Sunday. The last time the sides met was at Goldington Road in November when the Blues ended the Exiles' nine game winning start to the league campaign.

"They ended our winning run and that still hurts. I know Mike Rayer and Martin Hines very well – two good coaches and two very good people as well,” said Burnell.

"But next weekend is about us; we need to keep our continuity going and we're looking forward to it. Hopefully we can get some good support at the Kassam because we'll be going flat out to maintain our winning streak.”