London Welsh moved out of the red and into the black with a comfortable bonus point win over Birmingham & Solihull, writes John Taylor.

Docked five-points for going into administration during the summer the Dragons were not marked their home debut with a victory, but after two losing bonus points on the road, a five try haul eased Danny Wilson’s side out of negative points territory.

Two tries from Paul Sampson and Tom Brown’s close range touchdown helped the Dragons open up a 25-0 lead at the break. Errie Claassens’ intercept try within two minutes of the restart secured the bonus point, with Welsh seemingly poised to run riot.

The avalanche failed to materialise, however, although the Dragons weren’t deprived of try scoring opportunities. Ronnie McClean sprinted clear for the visitors opening score before Brown crossed for his second. Rod Petty dived over late on to take Birmingham into double figures, but the result had long since being decided.

Having racked up 36 points against Bristol on their previous outing, Birmingham & Solihull arrived at Old Deer Park in confident mood, while Welsh had played well away to Bristol and Nottingham although victory had eluded them.

It was Welsh that sized the initiative after a low key opening ten minutes, truncated only by referee Tim Wigglesworth’s whistle and Aled Thomas’ penalty.

Cameron Mitchel was then hounded down in his own 22 by Sampson and Greg Evans, on as a blood replacement for Neil Starling. The Birmingham centre was turned over and after Dan George and Jon Mills had both taken it on, Claassens and Evans combined to send Sampson over in the corner. Thomas converted.

That was the lift Welsh needed with the remainder of the first half turning into one-way traffic. After McClean had wasted the opportunity to get the visitors on the board with a penalty, Thomas then saw his penalty attempt rebound off the right hand upright.

The Welsh fly half would make amends though after a good driving maul from the Dragons pack, with the Bees then caught offside as they retreated back into their own 22. Thomas slotted the ball between the uprights and Welsh led by 13.

Birmingham excursions into Welsh territory were becoming rarer and when they did get decent field position they squandered it. Mills rampaged forward after gleefully accepting an overthrown lineout and with Birmingham on the back foot, Sampson’s try in corner was the almost inevitable end result.

Sampson then broke the Birmingham line with a lovely dummy and only some desperate defending denied Claassens a try in the corner. But Welsh were piling on the pressure with Sampson the next to be thwarted in the corner after a great line out steal by Mike Powell.

The rich vain of confidence through running Welsh ranks was rewarded when they turned down a kickable penalty, instead preferring to opt for a scrum. In the ascendancy in the pack, the Birmingham pack was sent backwards with Dragons number eight Tom Brown diving over the line. Thomas added the extras.

Welsh should have had the bonus point up before half time when Matt Corker was in the right place at the right time to take Gordon Ross’ offload, only for the second row forward to spill the ball with the line at his mercy.

The Dragons wouldn’t have to wait long to rectify that after the break, however, as Claassens intercepted Petty’s pass and coasted over. Thomas added the simple conversion and the home support settled in for a second half try-fest.

It would not materialise, however, due to a combination of a high error count by Welsh and some stubborn resistance from Birmingham. The home side continued to dominate territorially but their thirst for more tries was to go unquenched until the Welsh pack mauled their way over the line with Brown the man to claim the touchdown.

Before that, however, Ross’ knock on would end with McClean outpacing Corker in a foot race to the line, with some poor tackling late on allowing Petty to dive over to ensure the visitors finished with double figures.

The result though had long since being decided and while Welsh will reflect that the margin of victory could well have been greater, the five points were very welcome as the Dragons got their season up and running.

Post-Match Reaction: London Welsh head coach Danny Wilson “We definitely felt a bit of pressure going into this game, just because we’d performed against Bristol and Nottingham but just not got the result.

“Today, the first half was excellent; we played some really good rugby. We still played some good stuff in the second half but we just weren’t as clinical. We weren’t as ruthless and professional as we perhaps could have been, but I’m nick picking, our main objective was five-points and the boys worked hard so I’m happy.

“It’s good to get that out of the way [five point penalty]. It’s been tough because we we’ve gone to two very good sides, in terms of Bristol and Nottingham away, and come away with losing bonus points when we know we should have come away with wins.

“It takes time to develop as a squad and we’ve been ruthless in the past, beating Sedgley Park 60-0 here last season - that’s a professional performance. Today we were only two-thirds professional; for a third of the game we weren’t and we’ve got to strive to be totally ruthless against these kind of sides. Not taking anything away from Birmingham & Solihull because it probably wasn’t a good day for them at the office, and they produced much better the week before against Bristol.

“Our minimum standard for any away game is two points. Coming off the back of that result today and the two bonus points we picked up at Nottingham and Bristol, I think we do need to go to Rotherham targeting a win. It’s a tough, tough venue but that’s what we’ll be talking about on Monday.

London Welsh Scorers: Tries: Sampson (2), Brown (2), Claassens; Cons: Thomas (3); Pens: Thomas (2).

Birmingham & Solihull scorers: Tries: McClean, Petty; Cons McClean.

London Welsh: A Thomas, P Sampson (G Evans 52min), N Starling, S Whatling (P Mackey 72min), E Claassens, G Ross, N Runciman (R Lewis 52min), D Williams, D George (B Gotting 59min), M Holford (J Horn-Smith 66min), M Corker, M Powell, J Mills © (R Bell 68min), L Beach, T Brown.

Birmingham & Solihull: R Spee, S Hunt, R Tomlinson, C Mitchel, R McClean, R Petty ©, J Williams (S Brown h-t), C Voicy (M Long 50min), G Thomas (J Preece h-t), D Seeler, S Ault (T Freeman h-t), S Pammenter (A Davidson 64min), C Brightwell, R Earnshaw, R Halavatau (A Clayton 44min).

Half-time: 25-0 Attendance: 1,650