London Welsh head Justin Burnell blamed poor tackling after his side slipped to heir first Championship defeat of the season at Bedford.

“We lost the game purely on woeful missed tackles,” said Burnell after Saturday’s match.

“We’re obviously disappointed. We let ourselves down today in crucial areas.

“Our line-out didn’t function and our first-up tackling in the first half was poor.

“When you play against a good side, and they had some good individuals, they’ll score tries against you if you miss tackles.

“Against Bristol we didn’t miss those tackles, but today we did and hence we lost the game.”

Welsh now face back-to-back games against Edinburgh Academical in the British & Irish Cup next Saturday at Old Deer Park, before returning to Championship action against London Scottish at the Kassam Stadium on December 21.

Burnell said: “What it goes to prove is that you can have a team down towards the bottom end of the league who on their day are capable of beating a team at the top.

“That’s a credit to the standard of the Championship.

“London Scottish is another massive game back in Oxford.

“And what a fantastic time for us to put things right in respect to the Championship.

“It’s back to work on Monday and get the hard work done – we’ll look at our faults and rectify them.”