With a strong starting XV named by Steve Bates, the Falcons struggled to get past a dogged defence, while El Salvador could well have taken the lead with an early penalty which went wide, as did their other efforts, before Steve Jones capitalised on a defensive error on the tryline to open the scoring after six minutes. Rory Clegg converted.

Centres Jamie Noon and Tom May were also on the score sheet in the first half, Clegg converting both. I think last season we had about 40-50 points by half time, but this year we had to settle for 21 points in the first 40, as the 3,789 officially in attendance (or the less than 3,000 actually there) struggled to get up for the game and were pretty quiet.

Then again, there wasn’t much to shout about as the Falcons flirted between a kicking game and running difficult lines when El Salvador continually left gaps out wide which Tim Visser and Danny Williams, before he was replaced with Spencer Davey late in the half, could have exploited.

I’m all for showing the opposition respect, but this was hardly Leicester we were playing. And though we might have used it a little as a practice match, the fact is it’s still a competitive match and we needed to be scoring as many tries as possible in order to try to get the best knockout draws we can.

At the break, the front row of Joe McDonnell, Carl Hayman and the lively Matt Thompson was replaced by Jon Golding, Micky Ward and Andy Long, and soon after the restart Ed Williamson secured the bonus point, Andy Long soon adding a fifth.

With Andy Perry and Russell Winter entering the fray, the Falcons looked more purposeful in the second half, and Tim Visser powered over the line and ran in his try near the posts, Clegg successfully converting yet again.

There were mixed feelings in the crowd when the referee, whose name I can’t seem to find so I’ll call him Pierluigi Collina (thanks to Slacker for that observation), awarded us a penalty try on the hour after El Salvador collapsed a five-metre scrum which was heading towards the line.

A quick tap penalty was fed to man of the match Tim Swinson for the lock to smash through one desperate tackle for an eighth try, and Phil Dowson completed the scoring.

As always, after a game like this the analysis is likely to focus on the negatives with our Falcons expected to destroy the Spanish part-timers, and indeed as I have said we made it a lot more difficult than it probably needed to be, especially in the first half. However, El Salvador played with spirit and a lot of effort, and never rolled over, well done to them. And thankfully Worcester only put nine tries past Padova in their opening game.

On the Falcons side, Steve Jones, Matt Thompson, Tim Visser and Tim Swinson all played well, while Jamie Noon did more than we have seen previously this season, although Tom May’s success in the centre at Gloucester wasn’t repeated.

Nine successful conversions will probably have done Clegg’s confidence good ahead of a few months when he is likely to be first choice fly-half, especially if Jones’ good form at 15 is maintained.

Danny Williams unfortunately only played the first 35 minutes or so, but at least when he got the ball he ran forwards today, rather than mazying across the pitch as he was wont to do in Newport.

Off the pitch, whose idea was it to put a countdown (or countup) clock in the South Stand? That’s the only bit of the scoreboard we can actually see from our end! And it probably cost the temporary fly-half budget. Sigh.