Richard Thorpe said London Welsh have made “fantastic strides” this season, despite suffering a sixth straight defeat.

The Exiles’ 23-3 home loss to Newcastle left many observers fearing the worst for the basement boys.

Flanker Thorpe said: “We have had a very hard start, something that probably we didn’t expect.

“We are adjusting to life in the Premiership.

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“I think we have made some fantastic strides.

“We have certainly come a long way with our defence.

“We are starting to get off the line with a bit of aggression and that’s going to be important, but we need to maintain that for a full 80 minutes.

“There is an eight-point gap, but we are only at the beginning of the season.

“That is certainly not a write-off for us.

“In professional rugby, you can never think I am just going to give up, that’s it, we are done.

“We are by no means done.

“We have actually got a team of fighters there.”

Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards said: “I think we had done our homework on London Welsh.

“I think we weren’t accurate enough in a lot of stuff that we did and they capitalised on it.

“We knew that they were going to be a difficult side.

“Chris Hala’ufia is still an outstanding player in my eyes. His ability to offload in the tackle, there’s not many people who can do what he does.”

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