Welsh moving forwards, says Browne

Peter Browne believes London Welsh will emerge stronger for their defeats to London Scottish and Bedford Blues before Christmas, which saw the Exiles knocked off the top of the Greene King Championship table.

The former, in particular, prompted some soul searching within the Welsh camp and Justin Burnell's side have duly responded with victory at Jersey, to go back to top spot, and last Sunday's hard fought win over Pontypridd.

The second row, who joined Welsh in the summer from Harlequins, believes the club and its players have come back stronger for the experience.

"We're in a very good place; every team needs to come up against real hardship and we had that in the Scottish game,” said Browne. "In some ways they worked us out, but we gave them points and they stuck in and were quite tenacious."

"It was a good opportunity for us, mid-season, to reflect a little bit and have a good look at ourselves, be honest and then move forwards. Justin's very good at this and we're in the process now of moving forwards."

"We came back and played well against Jersey for 60 minutes, which was good and the boys really dug in, and now we're at the stage where we're adding more strings to our bow. We're becoming a more intelligent team."

"It's good to have this period at this stage of the season - it will stand us in really good stead for the end of the season, and hopefully we'll be there or thereabouts."

"We've got some big games coming up and they'll be real tests. We've got Scottish, Leeds, Rotherham, Plymouth and Cornish Pirates and they're exciting games that everyone wants to be involved in.”

Browne spent a summer at the Gloucester Academy before attending Durham University, where he linked up with Newcastle Falcons. He signed a first-team contract in the third year of his degree and remained for one more year in the north-east before heading south to join Harlequins.

It was at Quins that he focused purely on playing in the second row, having played back row at Newcastle.

"Newcastle feels like a long time ago now, but it was a really good place and a really good bunch of lads, and a great ethos,” he said.

"I was there when they were fighting relegation a few times and we had the likes of Jonny Wilkinson and Carl Hayman, some top players. I learnt a lot while I was there – it was a really good experience for me."

"Quins is a really good club that wants to play rugby. That's shown in the ambition that the boys have and the way they're allowed to go out and express themselves. It was a really good environment.”

Injuries restricted his appearances at Quins, but he still played 31 times for the club and won an Amlin Cup in his first season – Quins beating Stade Francais in the final in Cardiff. He enjoyed further success in his last season, helping Quins lift the LV= Cup with victory over Sale in the final at Sixways.

"Having injured my peck at the start of the [2012/13] season I was fighting for my place in the squad, which I did and started the LV= Cup games and we beat Northampton and a strong Bath team,” said Browne.

"I was on the bench for the semi-final and the final and got on in both of those, which was good. It was a shame not to be starting but it was a good experience and good to win.”

A regular face in the London Welsh side at the start of the season, a foot sprain picked up in the dying minutes against Cornish Pirates at the Kassam Stadium at the end of October ruled Browne out of action for a frustrating six weeks.

His return came amidst the wind and rain at Raeburn Place, before helping Welsh regain top spot in the Championship with victory away to Jersey.

"Edinburgh wasn't great conditions but it was a good game to play in because it was one of those games where you just had to front up and get on with it,” he said.

"It was just about work-rate and go forwards, and the forwards had a really good day. The boys stepped up and really enjoyed the physical confrontational side of it."

"The pitch was pretty heavy [v Jersey] but we were able to play more rugby, the backs were able to throw it about without the ball blowing everywhere.”

While the Championship may be London Welsh's priority, Saturday's clash with Scottish is a chance to keep the winning momentum of Jersey and Pontypridd going.

"It's a derby and that adds something. We haven't beaten them this season and we've beaten every other team in the Championship,” said Browne.

"We're looking forward to the chance to put to bed what happened before Christmas, but it's about the performance. It's about us performing to the best of our ability."

"At times we haven't played to our potential and as team we've got to come together and be a cohesive unit, but we're getting there.”