Director Of Rugby Half Season Report

As we approach the final half of the season, I thought it would be useful to do a half time report on the season so far. Overall it has been a pretty successful first half of the year with the 1st XV winning the majority of their games and getting some great wins on the road. Currently we sit 6th in the table with a couple of games in hand on most of the teams above us.

The team has evolved quite drastically this year with a number of new players coming into the fold and acquitting themselves superbly. These players have been a mixture of former players returning from University such as Will Parkes or players we have actively recruited to help bolster the squad such as Alex Wilkinson, Will Lewellynn, George Meader and Jordan Maddocks. Most of these players were playing level 7 or 8 rugby last year so to see how quickly they have settled in and become part of the team has been wonderful and they’ve also brought down the age profile of the team which is important so that the team doesn’t grow old together. These players have helped breathe a new lease of life into some of our “veterans” and the performances of Tom Hardwick, Drew Harper and Ed Spalding have been magnificent over the first half of the season.

The secret to any side is that as a coach you accept that not everyone is always going to play well together and that when one player is having an off day others cover their back and help them out. In our game against Kenilworth where we performed a Houdini style comeback to secure a fantastic come back victory Ed Spalding had two moments of magic that ultimately were hugely important in helping us win that game. Ed would be the first to admit that he didn’t have the best game last time out against Derby, but the collective effort of the other 14 players in going to the well meant we came away with a hard earned 17-13 win which looked unlikely when we were 10-3 down after 20 minutes. This mental fortitude optimizes what a good team we are and our challenge today and into the New Year is to go from being a good team that can grind out results to a more fluent team that can blow teams away like Oxford Harlequins and Stourbridge are at present.

Saturday was a tough game which on the balance of play Bridgnorth shaded. They had more of the ball because their set piece functioned better than ours and this meant we had to spend a lot of time defending. I thought overall we defended pretty well and even though we probably only had 35% possession we had the better chances in the game. In the last 20 minutes we were held up over the line twice and lost the ball close to their line 3 times which in a low scoring affair proved critical. One player who deserves special mention is Ollie Ingram who has played for the club all his life. Whilst Old Swinford Hospital School deserve a lot of praise for his development, it is great to see more players coming from the Mini and Junior section and being senior rugby ready. Whilst Ollie has made the leap from Colts to 1st XV relatively quickly it is really important for us as a club that we keep developing players in the 2nd XV and Academy so that overtime the 1st XV reflects the strength of the club as a whole. We will always need to recruit players from outside as the level we play at is incredibly tough but the more players we can produce ourselves is also critically important. This year players such as Will Parkes, Cam McCann and Luke Bimson have all played 1st XV and I’m sure that number will grow steadily over time as our Academy and 2nd XV provide the platform for players to develop.

The 2nd XV have had an up and down 1st half of the season but sit in 8th position as we stand. The 2nd XV will always be quite transitional due to the nature that if the 1st XV lose 3-4 players due to injury they come from the 2nd XV and if in turn they have 3-4 players injured or away this means there are lots of changes. One of our challenges has been availability with family commitments, tattoos, weekends away making selection difficult at times. It feels like we have turned a corner though and the lads are starting to understand to compete with 1st XV’s we need greater consistency of availability. There have been some huge success stories in the 2nd XV’s with Dan Cooper looking like a 1st XV player in the making. Dan has always had great potential and it’s great to see him knuckle down, train hard and I’m sure it won’t be long before we see him get his 1st XV debut.

This leads me nicely onto the role the 3rd XV play, as Dan is a product of the 3rd XV. Steve Rose has worked miracles to build bridges between the 3rd XV and 2nd XV. Many players just enjoy a social game of rugby and that is great. They are as much a part of the club as the 1st XV and 2nd XV players and as they have proven this year vital in making sure will fulfill our fixtures. I probably didn’t understand the importance when I first came to the club but with time and also people willing to work within a one club mentality those barriers are now broken and we have the whole senior section functioning as it should do, i.e for the club and not any particular team. The mighty Crusaders back under the leadership of the relentless Martin Lakeman are again flying high and provide another avenue for those just wanting a social game in their later years! We have also partnered with Chaddesley Corbett, where Ed Dunn the Chairman is working tirelessly to keep rugby played in the village. This link has worked well for both parties and it is something we will be looking at in the New Year to formalise, as I think it important the big town clubs like Bromsgrove help keep rugby played in the shires, as it is part of the way of life. We want rugby to flourish everywhere and the more clubs and teams there are locally the better. These links should provide avenues for all players coming out of the Academy places to play rugby whether they want to play performance rugby in the 1s and 2s or more socially for the 3s or at Chaddesley until they are physically developed to step up.

The New Year is always a good time to thank those whose work goes on behind the scenes to make the club run effectively. Lisa and her team behind the bar do a great job, especially on a Saturday night when you have a load of drunk blokes at the bar (I’m probably the biggest liability!) Clare and the Executive Committee for all the time they put in making sure the club functions smoothly. Steve and Chris for everything they do to get the ground ready to play especially with the amount of rain we have had. All the coaches in the Senior section, Chris Shipway, Will Harris, Jamie Rodden and newest recruit Rhys Pritchard, Last but not least kitman James “Baz” Barron, Baz does lots of the unseen jobs that nobody likes doing and at times we probably take him for granted, he is a vital cog in the wheel and long may his service continue.

One person who deserves special praise is our new Commercial Officer Bev Haynes who is really trying to drag the business side of the club into the 21st Century. For us to be able to achieve our goals on and off the pitch we need to be more commercially savvy and Bev is certainly making a huge difference on this front.

We are very lucky to be part of this great club, and hopefully the work we are putting in now will build good foundations for the future so the club can prosper for another 150 years.

Dan Protherough