He may have been born and bred in Queensland but Ben Mowen thinks blue is more his colour.

Sky blue at that.

Mowen has re-signed with the Waratahs for another season in a move which will further strengthen their talent-rich squad for 2011.

He is the latest in the flood of players opting to re-commit with the Waratahs with Berrick Barnes, Daniel Halangahu, Kane Douglas and Tom Carter all signing on the dotted line in recent weeks.

Mowen, who earned seven caps with the Reds and has made 19 appearance with the Waratahs, says it was initially tough to decide what to do.

“I was talking with the Reds,” he said.

“Obviously things have changed a bit up there with Link [coach Ewen McKenzie] coming in and the attitude and change in culture made it more of a prospect of going home.

“But in saying that, the lure of staying down here, to be part of what we are building here was more than enough and I was very excited to stay on.”

Mowen says now he knows where he will be for the next couple of years, he is keen make his mark.

The number eight has rotated between the starting XV and the reserves bench throughout the season and says while he is obviously keen to stay in the run-on squad, he will do what is best for the team.

“You always want to be part of that starting side, but in saying that you have got to play your part when you are not,” Mowen said.

“It is probably more important that when you are out of that side that your demeanour stays the same, you keep contributing to the team in the say way you would if you had a starting position.

“That is what I have tried to do and hopefully somewhere along the line I can try and wrestle that jersey back.”

The Waratahs are sitting in fourth place on the Super 14 ladder after a gritty 14-10 victory over the Western Force in Perth last Saturday night.

Mowen says although the win over the Force was not always pretty, it was a good work-out ahead of meeting the Blues at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday night.

“They [the Force] obviously had a big shift in attitude during the week because they played like a team that hadn’t lost a game all year,” he said.

“It was a pretty bruising encounter and I thought that we that we stuck to our defence patterns and to come away with that tight win over there, it was a very important win for us in moving forward.”