Two months of the season almost gone and it’s fair to say that it has been a struggle. The 1st XV lie one from the bottom of London NE 4, the 2nd XV are bottom of the EC merit table, and the 3rd XV have had to call off four games already due to lack of players (remember they have honoured all but one fixture in the last two seasons). So what has changed? A look back at the team selection for Jan 15th 2005 (1st team beat Chipping Sodbury to go through to the Powergen Vase quarter-final) gives a few clues. Of the 19 players selected for the 1st’s that day only 7 are playing against league leaders Colchester this Saturday joined by 5 who played in the 2nd’s and 2 who played in the 3rd’s, throw in a very old Director of Rugby and you can see that the team is very much in transition. This has a knock-on effect through the other two sides so the 2nd XV is not as strong as in the previous three seasons, just as we have entered them in the much harder EC merit league. Many of our veteran stalwarts are also now not looking to play on a regular basis so overall playing numbers have dropped. The fixture list has not helped our situation for the lower teams with both the 2nd XV and the 3rd XV having just three home fixtures in the first 16 weeks of the season. All these things however should not be used as excuses. The reason that teams are losing are that they are not good enough at present and it is going to take a lot of hard work to turn the season around. The 1st XV have been competitive in all their games but only for small periods and the opposition have generally been more organised and clinical in their play to secure the victories. This can be addressed at training but only when the whole squad are training together. There is no lack of commitment on the field of play and there is much talent in the squad so both myself and ‘coach’ Ian Smith are confident that we can turn things around. To those players who have played ‘occasionally’ this year make a commitment to play more regularly, for those who are stopping playing think about how you can give something back e.g. coaching, watching and helping the youngsters who are coming through, or just getting up the club for a beer!! Well this has all been very serious but lets not forget that there should be more to the Rugby Club than just playing rugby. As Patrick said last week ‘Remember the songs!’ and it was great to see the Chairman’s son leading the singing with bottle of port in hand (and he will soon be old enough to play senior rugby!!). Also Mark Dawson’s changing room present for birthday boy Neil Thurston could only happen at a rugby club, and maybe a few clubs frequented by Tory ministers. There are several social events at the club during November including The President’s Evening and A Fat-Bob production so I look forward to seeing you all and you can tell me exactly where it is going wrong AGAIN!
