Henley Hawks head coach Jason Forster delivered an honest assesment of his team, admitting they have underperformed in National 2 South this season.

Hawks lie 11th in the table and are not yet mathematically guaranteed to avoid the bottom two relegation places.

“We really expected to get into the top six,” said Forster.

“Injuries and unavailability have not helped us.

“It has been a very unlucky season on and off the field.

“We need to get a bit more of a professional or semi-professional approach.

“We are where we are because we are not good enough.”

He added: “I’ve said to the boys so many times we need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot.”

One positive note has been the form of young wing Will Jones, who is in his first full season of senior rugby.

Forster said: “He is one of the first names on the team sheet.

“He still has a lot to learn, but gives his all every single game.

“For his size, his defence is very good.”

Forster does still believe things can get better next season.

He said: “We’ve still got to battle hard. The enthusiasm is high, but they have got to nurture that.

“I describe it in cricketing terms. They are trying to hit a six off every ball too often.”

As for Saturday’s 47-22 defeat to Rosslyn Park, Forster said: “I’m very frustrated, especially with our start.

“The basics are killing us. We are turning over ball too easily.

“At the start, our kicking game let us down. If you kick it, you have got to execute right.

“Their tries in the first half were quite soft and if you give a team like Rosslyn Park five tries, you are making a mountain for yourselves.

“What I will say about us is that we negated their driving line-out and had a bit of parity in the scrums.

“We scored some cracking tries ourselves which showed glimpses of what we can do, but glimpses are not good enough.”

He added: “Our boys could have just folded and curled up in a ball at half-time, but they showed character.

“They put themselves in an uphill battle, but I will praise them for the way they battled.”