Welsh Won't be Lacking Motivation at the Kassam

Next Sunday's Championship semi-final 2nd Leg could be London Welsh's last 80 minutes of the season, unless the Exiles can overturn a seven-point deficit against Leeds Carnegie. Motivation therefore won't be a problem.

Leeds make the trip to the Kassam next Sunday (kick-off 12:45pm) protecting a seven-point lead given them courtesy of their 38-31 win at Headingley, and Welsh won't be holding anything back.

"All the boys know that, we're well aware of it and no one's hiding behind anything. Everyone wants to play in the final – that's where we want to be,” said Awcock, who crossed twice for the Exiles on Sunday.

"We've got a good squad and there's no reason why we shouldn't be there, as long as we put in a performance next Sunday at the Kassam.”

Despite outscoring the home side by three tries to two, the Exiles left Headingley disappointed with some aspects of their own display, not least the concession of 24 points in penalties.

"The boys all know they underperformed and in this league you can't underperform, if you're looking to get into the Premiership. You can't put in a performance like that – it's got to be better,” said Awcock.

"Headingley is a difficult place to come but we've done a job up here before in similar respects – we were down but regrouped. Unfortunately it didn't happen on Sunday.

"We're disappointed with the way we conceded a few penalties, but we'll regroup and head back to the Kassam and put in a better performance. It's over two legs so it's all to play for at home.”

A first half replacement for Alex Davies, Awcock crossed in either half and is confident that the Exiles can do the same on Sunday. Key will be scoring first.

"I don't think we ever struggle to score tries – we like to get over the whitewash. They did cause us a few problems in terms of loose kicks and kick chase issues, but it's nothing that can't be sorted for next Sunday,” he added.

"We'll be aiming to score first and then it's nil-nil, but as long as we work hard this week - correct the little system errors that we got wrong on Sunday - and put a performance in, we'll be confident.”

Head Coach, Justin Burnell furthered this by saying: "It's all to play for; if we score the first try in the first few minutes then it's nil-nil on aggregate and that will be out target, to make a game of it.

 "It could be the last game of the season, or we could then be in the final. We'll be going in to the game with the appetite to win.”

"We're disappointed with our performance; it's not a good day good at the office when you concede 38 points, but we've got to get back in and that's something we're very good at,” added Burnell.

 "We'll look at where the mistakes were, we'll rectify those errors and move forward.

 "Our defence has been a massive strength of ours and they just walked through us twice. We weren't at our best, our discipline was disappointing, but all credit to Leeds.

"We're a resilient bunch and we've just got to move forward. You can't moan about it. It's one thing we've always said, we don't make excuses,” he said.