BOSS Mike Cudmore insists Ealing Trailfinders did not look out of their depth, in spite of a chastening first game in the Championship against a dominant London Scottish.
His side shipped five tries in a 44-13 defeat at neutral Allianz Park, but although the game ran away from Ealing towards the end, Cudmore said the first half gave him plenty of encouragement.
“It was maybe individual missed tackles that were costly. At this level you get punished, but we're better than that,” said Ealing's director of rugby.
“We knew that in the league we came from, if you make a mistake, you don't get punished as you do in this league. What you saw, certainly with the first three tries, is them being very clinical.
“On the flip side, I thought for long periods of the game we were in it. We showed we can compete and there were some very positive signs.
“We're disappointed with the last 10 minutes and obviously the sin-binning [of Conor Carey towards the end] killed us. You can't play at this level with 14 men. They racked up a couple of tries and the scoreline probably looked bigger than it should have been.
“But we now know where we are and that we have to strengthen in certain areas. I was happy with most parts. We weren't out of our depth, that's the most important thing.”
Cudmore added: “There were things we could have done better, but I thought we stopped them on the line well a few times and was happy with our physicality.
“There were a lot of unforced errors on their part too, which meant we were putting a lot of pressure on them.”
