Week 2 of the Stoneham Blog. and has been an eventful week. Confirmation has been received of entry into the RFU EDU Junior Vase competition, just awaiting the preliminary fixture, also entry into the Hampshire RFU Plate competition, as this is the first year in this competition for some time the club has to enter another preliminary round as we are unseeded. I have high hopes for both these competitions, i strongly believe that we have the capability and the talent to make a good run at such competitions.
My thoughts have also wondered to the possibilities open to us in the league, playing in Hampshire 2, which is Level 10, for those that dont know, level 10 means we are 9 leagues away from the Rugby Premiership. The premiership being Level 1, Championship level 2 and so on. So, hypothetically, within a decade this small club in Hampshire could be playing teams such as Harlequins, Leicester Tigers or Bath. But, being a pragmatist that is a long way in the future and the fortunes of war are such that this does not seem realistic. Our Head Coach for this season has devised a game plan and training schedule that will challenge any team in either Hampshire 1 or even the low London leagues, and having played in London South West 3 and 4 i can well believe this. But my thoughts have also turned to some of the clubs i used to play against. namely one side in particular. Jersey RFC, 10 years ago i played against Jersey in Hampshire 1 and in London South West 3, this was a time a young England player was playing for them, a man i am convinced will be at the World Cup in September, Matt Banahan. But this is beside the point, 10 years ago Jersey were where we are now, they are now 2 years from the top flight, they are 2 promotions away from the premiership, they are plying their trade currently in National 1 a level 3 league, i have been impressed by their rise through the ranks and obviously wish my old rivals all the best. I guess my point is, you never know what may happen in the future, i look at all my old rivals, Bournemouth, Trojans, Portsmouth, Havant, Basingstoke, Gosport and Fareham, Guernsey and i think maybe Rugby Union in Hampshire is not as bad as i once thought. It is just difficult as a smaller less well known club to make its way and keep good players. All these clubs have one thing in common, ambition. This is what we need, we need to instil a team spirit of moving forward. For a while now the club has been happy to keep operating and fulfilling fixtures, and when i joined the club 2 seasons ago i fell into this as well, after many poor seasons it was a brilliant achievement and certainly one to be proud of. However, we have impressed with our resilience, we have proved our doubters wrong, now is the time to bang the nail in the coffin and attack with ambition, passion and pride!
What else has been on my mind, well have been upset by the loss of Winger Nick Davies, he unfortunately lost his job, another casualty of the economic climate, and as a result has decided to take a position in Spain, he is leaving immediately and will return in September, i personally feel this is a huge blow for us, as Nick is one of the most committed individuals we have in the club, always at training, always at matches, we are yet to see the full extent of Nick's talent and certainly yet to see what his blistering pace can do on the field, but needs must and we wish him all the very best of luck! I am hoping to welcome some new players to the club this week at training. I am also hoping that soon we can announce some new sponsors to Stoneham RFC while welcoming back some old ones. Post match food has been organised and arranged and we are so pleased that we can announce that our co-operation with the Cricketers Public House will continue into the 2011/12 season.
Finally, something that i have thought for some time, Cross Code co-operation, what do i mean with this, well seeing what we can learn from our cousins in Rugby League. As many of you already know i have been a proponent and tried to encourage players to joining me in playing Rugby League for the Southampton Spitfires RLFC, I personally have learned so very much from playing this type of Rugby, has opened my eyes to the advantages of close support, angles of running and i have personally improved my tackling technique. However, i do have a concern that i have focused on aerobic capacity to ensure i am in defence or in the right place, right time, that i have neglected strength conditioning, i feel that i am not as strong as i used to be and am not improving leg power or upper body strength. Fortunately it is only June/July so have time to remedy this, so time to work on a suplementary strength program to go alongside the Spitfires training and Stoneham training. Wow, wont have any time for anything else. I am determined that this season will be the best yet, as captain i want to lead by example, i want to be a beacon for the entire squad to say, wow, i want to be like him, i want to lead by inspiration, i know that the team respect me as a player, however, i must not allow that knowledge to affect my game, my place in the starting XV is not guaranteed and if i do not perform, if i am not fit enough, or if there is someone playing better Rugby than me i will drop myself. So, there is something for everyone to play for, there is always something to compete for whether it be for a place in the starting XV or whether it be in the league or the cup. This season needs ambition!
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
New Blog for all things Stoneham Rugby
Here it is, the Stoneham RFC blog, my chance to vent, rant weekly on all things rugby and also offer another platform to get the good word out about our club. So we are in to June and, my captaincy is 1 month old. so far things are going well, at least i think they are, attendance at training has been good, our new coach is developing new stratagies and new game plans for us to work to. and so far the team has taken to it well. but some things are playing on my mind. The season seems so far away and yet in relative terms it really is not, we are almost to July giving us 8 weeks until our first match. the things on my mind are these:
Sponsorship:
So far we have no sponsor, we have no external money coming in of any kind, at this rate we will be recycling last years shirts for this year and to me that is unacceptable. I am trying to create a professional atmosphere within the club, i want Stoneham to share the success that in my years of playing rugby i have done, i have been involved in league winning clubs, clubs who have won cups, clubs that strived for the victory. I want Stoneham to feel like that share the elation one gets when your team, your friends do well! Part of that is to look like a team, look like the you belong on the paddock. But we need someone to come along to inject the much needed cash into the club in order to do this. Times are tough, i know this, the club knows this, but is it really that tough. The benefits surely outweigh the costs.
Stoneham runs as a purely voluntary club, without those who work tirelessly to keep the club running we would have folded as a club years ago. But we show the determination off the field we do on it! Stoneham have shown a determined spirit on the field, the likes of which i have never seen before, we just need the backing to maintain the club and keep us going forward.
Recruitment:
Pre-season, a time to reassess, a time to evaluate what worked last season and what didn't, a time to remedy and improve. But, can a club do this with the players it has, i look around at local clubs that have basked in glory and the deeper i look the more i see how they won leagues, cups and play-offs. One such club who gained promotion did so by recruitment, at the end of 2009/2010 season the club the club scouted discontented players from bigger clubs and essentially hand picked a team through incentives. This is indicative of amateur Rugby in the south, the big clubs snap up the talent and attempt to buy promotion, its all about glory, it is all about trying to get the strongest squad, even if that means many players sitting on the fringes and not getting regular game time, why do they stay? because the promise that they might get into the first team. I am of the opinion that game time makes players better, not watching as someone else takes your shirt.
So where does that leave a club like Stoneham? well, it leaves us with a core of players , glaring gaps in some positions and all because larger more successful clubs are hogging players starving the rest of the smaller clubs from potential players. what can be done? maybe it is time for some pro-active action, i have a plan to help recruit! further details on the plan in a future blog!
Training and Fitness:
Any club goes through a period where fitness is an issue. Usually it is the time spent from the end of the season to the start of pre season where fitness drops off. This is the same for any club, although, we did start last season very strongly and our fitness was above the teams that we played, leading to some very good wins. However, they soon caught up and overtook us. Last season after christmas and towards the end of the season our fitness dropped off dramatically and after a satisfying 49-13 win at home we failed to win a single league game from January to April, we did draw one, but still not a single victory. Some fantastic performances and some fantastic games, but the big W was elusive. the drop off in winning was coincided to a drop off in training.
I am determined that this will not happen again! we have a new coach and with him, new ideas, he has a clear idea of how to progress and has a style that will keep people interested. Our coach has an ethic that if training is fresh, interesting and not repetitive people will attend. This is where i went wrong last year, i attempted incorporate fitness, ball skills and neglect game plan, we lost direction. We started to repeat over and over the same drills. This season will be different. we have direction, we have purpose and we have a plan!
As for fitness, well we have a long way to go, we have a great deal of work to do in order to bring everyone up to the same level. I have instigated a separate and specific session designed to improve ball handling, strength and speed to work alongside the main training session. The first session had 5 people attend and was very intense with a high work rate. Hopefully more will attend and hopefully this will help when September comes.
Conclusions:
So here it is the first in the Captains Blog. my thoughts, concerns and areas of attention. This is designed to be a record for those within the club, but maybe it will help other players and clubs to look at it and say, yes we have that problem, or hey they sound like a good club to play for, you never know the effects of blogs, help or detriment, your comments welcomed!
Sponsorship:
So far we have no sponsor, we have no external money coming in of any kind, at this rate we will be recycling last years shirts for this year and to me that is unacceptable. I am trying to create a professional atmosphere within the club, i want Stoneham to share the success that in my years of playing rugby i have done, i have been involved in league winning clubs, clubs who have won cups, clubs that strived for the victory. I want Stoneham to feel like that share the elation one gets when your team, your friends do well! Part of that is to look like a team, look like the you belong on the paddock. But we need someone to come along to inject the much needed cash into the club in order to do this. Times are tough, i know this, the club knows this, but is it really that tough. The benefits surely outweigh the costs.
Stoneham runs as a purely voluntary club, without those who work tirelessly to keep the club running we would have folded as a club years ago. But we show the determination off the field we do on it! Stoneham have shown a determined spirit on the field, the likes of which i have never seen before, we just need the backing to maintain the club and keep us going forward.
Recruitment:
Pre-season, a time to reassess, a time to evaluate what worked last season and what didn't, a time to remedy and improve. But, can a club do this with the players it has, i look around at local clubs that have basked in glory and the deeper i look the more i see how they won leagues, cups and play-offs. One such club who gained promotion did so by recruitment, at the end of 2009/2010 season the club the club scouted discontented players from bigger clubs and essentially hand picked a team through incentives. This is indicative of amateur Rugby in the south, the big clubs snap up the talent and attempt to buy promotion, its all about glory, it is all about trying to get the strongest squad, even if that means many players sitting on the fringes and not getting regular game time, why do they stay? because the promise that they might get into the first team. I am of the opinion that game time makes players better, not watching as someone else takes your shirt.
So where does that leave a club like Stoneham? well, it leaves us with a core of players , glaring gaps in some positions and all because larger more successful clubs are hogging players starving the rest of the smaller clubs from potential players. what can be done? maybe it is time for some pro-active action, i have a plan to help recruit! further details on the plan in a future blog!
Training and Fitness:
Any club goes through a period where fitness is an issue. Usually it is the time spent from the end of the season to the start of pre season where fitness drops off. This is the same for any club, although, we did start last season very strongly and our fitness was above the teams that we played, leading to some very good wins. However, they soon caught up and overtook us. Last season after christmas and towards the end of the season our fitness dropped off dramatically and after a satisfying 49-13 win at home we failed to win a single league game from January to April, we did draw one, but still not a single victory. Some fantastic performances and some fantastic games, but the big W was elusive. the drop off in winning was coincided to a drop off in training.
I am determined that this will not happen again! we have a new coach and with him, new ideas, he has a clear idea of how to progress and has a style that will keep people interested. Our coach has an ethic that if training is fresh, interesting and not repetitive people will attend. This is where i went wrong last year, i attempted incorporate fitness, ball skills and neglect game plan, we lost direction. We started to repeat over and over the same drills. This season will be different. we have direction, we have purpose and we have a plan!
As for fitness, well we have a long way to go, we have a great deal of work to do in order to bring everyone up to the same level. I have instigated a separate and specific session designed to improve ball handling, strength and speed to work alongside the main training session. The first session had 5 people attend and was very intense with a high work rate. Hopefully more will attend and hopefully this will help when September comes.
Conclusions:
So here it is the first in the Captains Blog. my thoughts, concerns and areas of attention. This is designed to be a record for those within the club, but maybe it will help other players and clubs to look at it and say, yes we have that problem, or hey they sound like a good club to play for, you never know the effects of blogs, help or detriment, your comments welcomed!
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