Justin Burnell beginning to feel the heat at winless London Welsh  

Justin Burnell admits London Welsh‘s awful start to the season has given him sleepless nights and candidly concedes his job is under threat.
But despite last Sunday’s humiliating 71-7 defeat at Wasps, Exiles’ bullish head coach believes he is still the man to turn things around.
Having lost all seven of their Premiership matches, conceding 47 tries and 343 points in the process, Welsh are rooted at the foot of the table. They face another onerous task against Leicester today, but defiant Welshman Burnell told The Rugby Paper: “I don’t doubt myself and as long as you come into work and know you can give it your best shot, I’ll keep fighting.
“It’s difficult to accept where we are. We’re very honourable and passionate people and I have sleepless nights mulling over mistakes and how to rectify them because I hate losing.
“I’ve never been in this position before but the club are being very supportive. It’s common knowledge that the financial aspects of the Premiership are taking their toll on us but our board are supporting us as best they can.
“But losing games is not what they want as directors and you always feel under pressure. If I said that wasn’t the case it would show I don’t care. If I was struggling to get out of bed then that would be the time to say ‘enough’. But I haven’t got that – I love this job and what we’ve achieved here up to now.”
Asked whether he feared being fired, Burnell said: “Our directors are good people but they would be no different to any other board, they want results. If they feel someone else can come in and get them results, that’s their decision.
“I’ve never had those conversations and they are very supportive, but who knows what goes on behind closed doors in boardrooms?”
Burnell proved his credentials six months ago by out-coaching Bristol‘s Andy Robinson, Sean Holley and Co to steer London Welsh into the Premiership.
But the Exiles have a budget of just £2.5m, around half that of most Premiership teams, and an enforced summer turnover of players allied to a succession of injuries means Burnell operates with one hand tied behind his back.
“We’re struggling to accommodate the league,” Burnell concedes. “There’s no margin for error. We’ve won enough possession, our set-piece is pretty good and we get enough territory, but we’re getting hammered from turnovers.
“Are we getting the best out of our players? That’s the question we’re continuously asking but we’ve had 15 players injured and lost guys we’d have liked to have kept over the summer, so we’re struggling against the tide.”
Life is unlikely to get easier, Burnell adding: “Our next three league games are Leicester, Northampton and Saracens. Progression would be to reduce losing margins and pick up bonus points.
“We’ve got to reduce our errors, stop teams scoring tries and score more ourselves. We still believe we can do something special.”
NEALE AHRVEY