London Welsh wing Josh Drauniniu has warned there’s plenty more to come from the club’s talented back division, as the Dragons prepare to travel to Plymouth Albion on Saturday.
The England Sevens flyer joined Welsh in the summer from Harlequins and claimed his third try of the Championship season in as many matches in last Saturday’s 33-9 win over Birmingham & Solihull.
After a frustrating season at Harlequins, Drauniniu is determined to make his mark at Welsh and is excited by the talent he sees around him in the likes of former Scotland international Gordon Ross, Sevens World Cup winner Aled Thomas, former England international Paul Sampson and Tonga international Hudson Tonga’uiha.
Throw in Errie Claassens, Simon Whatling, Liam Gibson, Dominic Shabbo, Paul Mackey and Fiji fly half Waisea Luveniyal and the potential at Welsh is clear for all to see.
“We have the most exciting backs in the league. There’s loads of potential and we still haven’t clicked yet. We are still telling each other what to do, where to run and how to defend,” said Drauniniu.
“As the season goes on we’ll be even more threatening. We’ve got all these amazing players and it’s just been a ride for me so far.”
Two tries on his competitive debut in Welsh’s opening weekend bonus-point win at Nottingham confirmed an astute signing by the Exiles. And a further try against the Bees already leaves him just one behind Championship try scoring pacesetter Miles Benjamin (Worcester Warriors) on four.
“I’m pretty happy with the start I’ve made to the season and hopefully it will carry on,” said Drauniniu, who is expecting a warm welcome at Brickfields on Saturday as a former Exeter Chiefs player.
“Plymouth is a hard place to go to; the fans are close to the pitch and are very passionate. But after the Cornish Pirates defeat it’s a great opportunity for the boys to go down again to the south west and try and get a win,” he said.
The Exiles produced their worst performance of the season when they went down 22-3 to the Pirates, only to bounce back against Birmingham & Solihull, and Drauniniu is hoping that defeat will prove an early turning point in Welsh’s season.
“All the boys got together and we all looked at the game and we knew it wasn’t our best performance, and by Phil’s [Greening] standards it just wasn’t good enough. So we had to make a decision; where do we go from here?,” he said.
The response was a bonus-point win over the Bees at Old Deer Park, and Welsh will be looking to build on that at Plymouth on Saturday.
Next Match: Plymouth Albion v London Welsh Saturday 18th September Brickfields, kick off 3pm Visit www.London-welsh.co.uk to read the full interview with Josh Drauniniu.
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