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Saturday's European Rugby Challenge Cup Pool 4 opener at Lyon marks the start of a key period in London Welsh's season
Saturday’s European Rugby Challenge Cup Pool 4 opener at Lyon marks the start of a key period in London Welsh’s season, according to head coach Justin Burnell.
The Exiles have lost all six of their Aviva Premiership games since returning to the top flight, but the former Cardiff Blues boss has been pleased by aspects of their performances.
He wants to kick off an important run of games on the right note in France as his side look to kick off their European campaign with a win. Burnell, who helped the Blues reach the Champions Cup quarter-finals in 2012, said: “It is a crucial time for us – to assess where we are at.
“We have got to look at different combinations; we’ve also got to get back up to a level of freshness. The Next four weeks is absolutely enormous for us in terms of combinations and looking at our processes.
“It’s not about finger pointing, it’s about collectiveness. It is tough, but that is life. We have earned the right to play at this level now we have got to make the most of it.”
They will face a Lyon side who ended a run of four-straight Top 14 defeats by edging out Bayonne in a hard-fought contest. Winger Thibaut Regard hopes his newly promoted side can continue the winning habit.
“This is a new tournament but it gives us the chance to go on a bit of a run and build our confidence after our last win in the league. We are on home soil and we know in Europe it is always important to win your home games.”
Match Facts
- Both teams have appeared in this competition just once and both won three and lost three (Lyon in 2011/12 and London Welsh in 2012/13.
- The last time London Welsh made an appearance in this tournament (2012/13) they ranked lowest for average tackles made per game (67.3).
- London Welsh won two of their three away games in the 2012/13 edition of the tournament.
- The last time they appeared in the Challenge Cup London Welsh’s Joe Ajuwa beat 14 defenders despite playing only two games.
Alors qu'on pouvait s'attendre à ce que Lyon délaisse la scène européenne
Lyon moved top of Pool 4 with a bonus-point 28-18 victory at home to London Welsh.
In a match-up between two sides who were promoted to their country’s respective top leagues last season, it was the Top 14 outfit who came out on top of an entertaining contest.
Lyon raced into an early lead when former South Africa international Ricky Januarie rounded off a period of intense pressure from the home side by going over in the corner. Captain Fabrice Estebanez then got a second 10 minutes later as the Exiles were reduced to 10 men when Rhys Crane was shown a yellow card for a late tackle on Franck Romanet.
Flying winger Romanet then scored a superb solo try to put them into a commanding lead but the visitors hit back with two tries in two minutes before half-time, with Chris Elder and James Lewis to crossing the whitewash to set up an intriguing second half.
Lyon prop Bogdan Balan saw yellow a minute into the second period as they came under pressure at the scrum. Welsh managed to make the most of their one-man advantage with a Roberts penalty but that’s all they would get.
Seb Stegmann became the second Exile sent to the bin for an early tackle just after the hour mark as they came under a huge amount of pressure.
After more than 10 minutes of defending in their own 22, the visitors finally buckled as Waisele Seru Sukanaveita crashed over and Jerome Porical added his fourth conversion. Lyon pressed for a fifth try in the dying moments but despite Nathan Vella seeing yellow for the visitors for killing the ball they couldn’t add to their score.
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