How London Welsh are working way back to top

William Gupwell goes down to south-west London to find a club out to rediscover itself

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LONDON Welsh were once a club at the pinnacle of the rugby world, providing the game with some of its greatest players, such as British and Irish legends JPR Williams and John Dawes.

However, the professional era brought financial troubles for the club, and disaster came in 2017 when the RFU dissolved the professional side of the operation, and they became purely an amateur team playing in the lower tiers of the rugby pyramid.

Since 2017, those at the Exiles have been determined to return the once-great club back to where it belongs through ‘project reset’. They have achieved multiple promotions and are now at level five, one league title away from returning to the National Leagues.

They went into this weekend top of Regional 1 South Central with four wins from four and director of rugby Cai Griffiths, below, is confident they can rise to the challenge.

“We’re very happy with how pre-season went, trying to layer on the success from last year. Our main focus is to be able to say we are the fittest side in the league.” Griffiths told The Rugby Paper.