LYN Jones praised London Welsh’s battling qualities after their 23-16 defeat at Northampton, writes ED MEZZETTI.

Welsh’s head coach said his players had been disappointed to lose in the end, but stressed the result showed the progress they were making.

“Northampton have a huge reputation for some of the tighter aspects of the game,” said Jones.

“They came hard at us and we went hard at them. No-one gave up.

“Northampton like to dominate the tight areas and then play their game.

“I don’t think they were able to do that as much today.

“We stuck at it and showed a lot of guts.

“There is a good spirit in the club and we are improving and growing.

“We are starting to look like a Premiership side.”

Jones added: “It was important to get something from the game and that was what we did.

“We deserved that with the effort we put in.

“When you pay big bucks, you get big players.

“There was just a couple of silly errors from us, giving knock-ons and position away, which they capitalised on.

“They are a quality side and showed that by the way they took their chances in the red zone.”

Northampton forwards coach Dorian West said: “The conditions suited London Welsh more than it did us.

“They have a big pack of forwards and we didn’t get a chance to run them round the pitch and tire them out because of the conditions.

“Once they got momentum they are hard to stop.”