The match result may have been unpalatable but Ryan Lamb is adamant that the lesson dished out to him at Old Deer Park last Saturday will prove beneficial in the long run.

The 19-year-old fly-half endured a torrid first start for Pertemps Bees as he stuttered and guided his side to a shock 24-15 loss at lowly London Welsh.

During the game he missed placekicks and made several costly mistakes - a charge down and an interception - that led to both of the Exiles' tries.

Lamb's all-round performance led his director of rugby, Phil Maynard, to admit that his young prot>g> 'had a nightmare' and also resulted in a flurry of headlines along the lines of lambs and slaughters.

But the England Under-19 stand-off, on loan at Sharmans Cross Road from Premiership club Gloucester, is unnerved by the criticism and has vowed to use to the harrowing experience to his advantage.

"I was disappointed with my performance," Lamb admitted. "It is horrible when you have come off the pitch feeling that you have let yourself and your team down.

"I am here to learn and will learn by my mistakes. Games like London Welsh are perfect to do that and in some ways I will learn more than I did winning against Plymouth," he said in reference to the starring role he played in the previous week's win over Plymouth Albion.

Both games sum up Lamb's approach to the sport and his position. His is a high-risk strategy based on doing the improbable and while that can unlock defences as it did against the Devonians and Harlequins on the opening day, it can also cause his own team problems.

Lamb is unbowed about his approach. "My adventurous style has made me successful, it's the way I enjoy playing rugby, this was just a bit of a nick - I'll have much better games.

"Whatever I tried just didn't come off like it did against Harlequins or Plymouth. Sometimes you just have poor games.

"But I'm not going to take it badly and try and do too much in the next game because sometimes there is a tendency to try and make up for it. I can't wait to play again to show that I have learned from it," he said.

Another fly- half who appears to be running into form, rather than out of it, is Moseley's Ollie Thomas who, after some early errors, inspired his team to a 36-6 victory over Blackheath.

The 22-year-old sparkled for an hour against the Club and delivered a display that prompted Director of Rugby, John Beale, to suggest that Thomas' recent gamemanagement problems are behind him.

"In the last hour he was somewhere near back to his best," said Beale. "Both in terms of his option-taking and his execution.

"The pass to Andy Binns for his try was as good as anything you will see on any pitch in the world. He saw that Blackheath were up quickly and missed both of his centres and gave Andy an easy run in."

Coventry expect to confirm the signing of former Newbury player Dave Harvey later this week to compete with Jon Higgins for the flyhalf shirt.

The Australian scored 285 points for the Berkshire side last season and was a crucial part of their run to promotion from National Two. He is in Sydney where he has been playing for Gordon.

Coach Mike Umaga is considering appealing against the second yellow card issued to Tom Johnson, who was sent off eight minutes from the end of Saturday's moraleboosting win over Otley. He will look at video evidence before making a decision.

In the National Trophy, the knockout competition for clubs outside the Premiership, Broadstreet have been given the almighty task of visiting Leicester Lions.

The Lions are the highest ranked team in the competition, the National Two and One side enter in later rounds, and are top of National Three North with a 100 per cent record. Broadstreet play their league rugby two levels lower in Midlands Two West.

Nuneaton, who are just below Leicester, welcome league rivals Tynedale to Liberty Road and will be hoping extending their own unbeaten record. Both games take place on October 1.