Defence let us down says Mills
Oct
London Welsh captain Jon Mills pulled no punches after the Exiles were knocked off top spot by Rotherham Titans at Old Deer Park last Saturday.
The home side went into the game leading the way in the Championship table, but four second half Rotherham tries, coupled with Bristol’s away win at Esher, saw the Exiles swap places with the west country team.
The Exiles led 13-9 at the break thanks to Ed Jackson’s seventh try of the league campaign, but tries from Robin Copeland (2), Tom Foden and Palepoi Nonu gave the visitors a 33-25 victory.
“We’re very disappointed with the performance, especially being at home,” said Mills. “Our defence is usually our strength, but we just seemed to slip off a few tackles.
“Rotherham have big ball carriers and maybe we could have dealt with them a bit better by being a bit tighter in defence and putting in double hits.
“We could see the threat, they just kept trucking it up and at times we defended really well and knocked them back, but then we just seemed to slip off tackles, which for a professional outfit we shouldn’t be doing.”
Welsh will get the change to redeem themselves, and return to the top of the table, when they face Bristol at the Memorial Stadium in a game being shown live on Sky Sports.
“When you’ve lost it’s nice to get back in the game quickly so you can try and put that wrong right. We’re looking forward to Friday now,” said Mills.
“We’ve got a bit to work on to put things right before then, but hopefully we’ll do just that next Friday at Bristol.”
Friday night’s trip to Bristol will signal the start of a huge three weeks for Welsh, with the Exiles then set to welcome the Cornish Pirates to Old Deer Park for the sides’ first meeting since their Championship semi-final. That’s followed by a trip to Doncaster Knights.
“This is why you play rugby - you want to play against the top sides. The Pirates have strengthened, Bristol have started well and Doncaster are right up there as well,” added Mills.
“We’ll know where we’re at after these games, but we haven’t gone from being a good side, which was top of the league, to an average side after losing to Rotherham.
“We’ve things to work on, we’re not the finished article, we know that. It’s all about February, March and April, although obviously we want to keep winning and finish top.
“Saturday was a bit of a reality check for us – we didn’t perform. We need to make sure we turn up on Friday at Bristol.”
