After setting the pace in the Greene King IPA Championship for so long the Exiles slipped to a second consecutive league defeat to London Scottish at the Kassam Stadium last time out, on the back of losing at Bedford Blues.
The Festive period duly saw them knocked off the top of the table by Bristol, but while the Exiles have the chance to reclaim top spot at St Peter (kick-off 2pm), finishing in the top four is the aim.
“It’s about what happens at the end of the season,” said Smith. “We’d like to be top but it means very little and that was proven when London Welsh finished fourth and got promoted.
“Yeah, it’s nice to be top but we go from day to day and game to game, and our focus is very much on what needs to be done to win at the weekend.
“Hopefully in hindsight those two defeats, and maybe one or two more than happen along the way because we’ve got some tough places to go to, will stand us in better stead than going unbeaten.
“It proves we are beatable and while you’d love to go into a game with the opposition thinking they haven’t got a chance, in your own mind you’ve got to have fear yourself to get the result you need.
“That’s the key thing to come out of these last two games. Where could we have done better? Why did we lose? But also it’s a mental mind-set thing, ‘boys we need to tighten up, we need to do that little bit more’ and we’d prefer to find that out now than towards the end of the season.”
Welsh were left frustrated by their performance and the result against Scottish at the Kassam on December 21. Denied by the TMO twice, the Exiles dominated possession and territory only to end up on the wrong end of a 13-5 scoreline – their first home defeat of the season.
“The focus this week has been looking at our attack, looking at why it didn’t function as well as we would have liked,” added Smith, who officially joined the coaching set up at Welsh last month after impressing head coach Justin Burnell during a trial period.
“We did create opportunities against Scottish and bar for a poor pass and their winger’s picking up and running 95 metres, when we were looking like we were going to score ourselves, we could have come away with a 7-6 victory having not performed that well.”
Welsh won their opening nine league games to forge ahead at the top of the Championship table, and despite those back-to-back losses Smith is confident that the Exiles can still secure a top four finish and a place in the play-offs.
“We did start well, but it’s a long season and there are always going to be dips in form of players and teams,” he said.
“Bedford was another game we could have easily won, and bar from a spell when we conceded two very soft tries we were in control for most of that game. But unlike Moseley and Rotherham away, where we came through and snuck it, we weren’t able to against Bedford and Scottish.
“We want to go out and win every week but it’s important that the performance is there because come the end of the season you need to be performing well, but you also have to make sure there’s more wins than losses. We’re confident that we’ll make the top four.”
On Saturday, Welsh head to St Peter to face a Jersey side equally in need of the points at a ground where Bedford and Cornish Pirates have already come unstuck this season.
“We’re under no illusions as to what we’re going to face – it will be tough and they’ve a fantastic supporter base. They’ve come up through the divisions, they fought to stay up last season so well and they’re trying to do the same again this year,” added Smith.
