Ollie Smith said it had been a “tough day at the office” after London Welsh were comprehensively beaten by Sale Sharks, writes SIMON WILLIAMS.

The Exiles had made improvement in their cup games in the past month, but their shortcomings in the Premiership were again well exposed, as the Welsh assistant coach admitted.

“It was back to our bread and butter, and our target for the season is obviously to remain in the Premiership – and still very much is,” said Smith.

“It was always going to be tough today. They’ve got some good players, even with the likes of (Danny) Cipriani missing. It was a tough day at the office.”

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Smith said former Exiles winger Tom Arscott’s try on half-time to take the score to 35-7 was the crucial turning point, which came following Sale scrum half Chris Cusiter’s interception from Seb Stegmann deep in the visitors’ 22.

He added: “If we score that or if he (Cusiter) knocks on, then it’s a penalty try and suddenly it’s 28-14 at halftime.

That’s a very different score.

“In the end it almost killed us off. In fairness to the lads, they rallied in the second half and made it more of a contest.

“But the story of our season has been competing against teams for 60, 70, 80 minutes and which we have just not done unfortunately yet.”