ASHINGTON JW RFC

Beer Tin Blog

At the clubs AGM it was suggested that the website and social media of the club needed more regular updates in order to promote more usage. Carl Hill has been a great servant to Ashington Rugby Club and were he able to read and write, I am sure he would have volunteered himself for the role. Instead he took it upon himself to suggest yours truly. And so here we are; an article providing insight into the magical world of AJWRFC. Over the course of the season I will endeavour to comment on goings on at the club; this will involve some form of match report for whichever of our three senior sides has had the misfortune of my selection as well as providing some information on key game areas from other club sides.

As a starting point I thought this article could be a chance to reflect on the past and anticipate the future. Call it a post season review. Call it a pre season build up. A more accurate description may be to call it a load of bollocks but here we go.
The past season has been a difficult one and cannot be sugar coated in any way; all three of our senior sides were poor and as a result, the pitfalls of relegation ensued. In so far as first team dogsbody Mick Cooper goes, his only solace can be taken in a victory of sibling rivalry. Mick can now proudly proclaim at the Cooper summer BBQ, “We were slightly less sh*t than you!”

In the clubs AGM, attitude and commitment was picked up on as an area of particular disappointment. Those of us who were at the Medicals 1st team away fixture will remember all too well the strop between Jarvi and Crusher, with Owen having to be consoled by Happy as tears filled his eyes in scenes reminiscent of Gazza in Italia 90. On a previous occasion a certain not so gentle giant had thrown a wobbler and abandoned ship, leaving half way through a match. Others could be named and shamed but it is not going to help anyone so let’s just all make sure it is not an issue this time next year. It is very simple really- we play rugby because we enjoy it- if we did not enjoy it we wouldn’t play. In order to enjoy it, we must commit ourselves to it. Tom Flores, winner of 2 Super Bowls as a franchise head coach put it as follows, “Total commitment is paramount to reaching the ultimate in performance.”

Let us not dwell on the past, for the future is upon us. And with this new future comes a new head coach! I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the management committee on the appointment of Stuart Rosser for the coming season. It is undoubtedly a bold decision to use foreign coaches who arrive from the continent with new ideas and techniques often unfamiliar on home soil, added to the obvious language barrier difficulties. However Stuart arrives with a good pedigree and seems very hungry for the task ahead.

When he was unveiled to us at a players meeting last week I am certain I was not the only one wondering why we had decided to get another prop in as head coach? As it turns out, Stuart plies his trade mostly in the back line, surprising perhaps but then I guess you need people like Stuart to make the James Turners of this world look prettier.

And so it is almost time for pre season, and the main order of business? Fitness. Spike snr. has wanged on for years that at our level of rugby, a large part of the game is won and lost in the fitness of the player. This is a rare occasion where I am prepared to agree that Spike has a valid point; a group of average players can be made to look far better than their skill set suggests if they possess a fitness superiority over the opposition- take last season’s Gosforth squad as a prime example. To summarise this point, pre season training starts Thursday 7th June; think about your commitment to the club and question whatever reason you may have for not planning to attend.

*If Harry is due to attend pre season could he please inform Wansbeck General Hospital first so they can have an air ambulance on standby.

Players come and players go, or as B*witched said, “c’est la vie.” As things stand we currently run three senior sides at the club. Taking into account things such as injury, illness, work, holidays and other circumstances such as a reluctance to pick Andrew Dyer, we need somewhere in the region of 60+ players. So far as new players go, the more the merrier, regardless of age, experience, weight or any other mitigating factor. With Stuart Rosser’s signing it was suggested that he may be on the brink of bringing a whole host of continental signing with him. Gavin Henson is currently without a club and as Wales only has a population of 200 I’m sure Stuart must know him somehow. Gavin’s addition would fill the gap left over a year ago by pretty boy James Phillips; both cut from the same cloth of dynamic, hard hitting backs with too much mousse and a bad tan. Aside from the big names being batted around, if you know of anyone who might fancy a run around on a Saturday, bring them to the club!

This already seems to have gone on long enough and I congratulate and commend those of you who have managed sit in front of a computer screen for this long without deciding to stop reading and go to pornhub. I had better wrap it up as Duncan Henderson will no doubt be reading this on his phone at work, meaning that some spotty nosed 17 year old has just hit the curb and is reversing into an old lady.

Next week’s feature will focus on the cockney mafia involvement at Northumberland RFU and our own new club president, who apparently was offered the position as he was the only candidate with hair- the 2 Gippa’s are currently trialling miracle grow to see if it will improve their own club status.

Au Revoir

Beer Tin