Oldershaw have appointed former player Gavin Scott as head coach. A former 1st XV skipper and club chairman Gav played for Oldershaw for 14 seasons before moving on to play for Birkenhead Park for 10 seasons. He returns to replace DOR Mark Sopp who is busy concentrating on building up the current junior section and promoting Women’s rugby at Oldershaw. The club has under gone a facelift in the last few seasons and now has a successful women’s section and a relaunched junior section and the club has ambitions plans for the clubhouse and hopefully they can match these on the pitch after a few seasons adrift in the lower leagues.

On his appointment Scott said this ‘I was approached last season by my good friend Tom Cass who had gone back to play at Oldershaw as skipper after stints at Park and Waterloo, but I felt that I still had something left in the tank to play at Park even though I was nearing 40 and retired 4 times, so I turned him down. I managed 6 or so 1st XV games alongside Simon Mason, before I picked up an injury, I think we had a combined age of 85! This year I’ve decided to concentrate on coaching 100% and leave the playing to the young lads. I’ve been lucky enough to have been coached by some excellent local coaches, each of which brought different things to the table and I hope to take various aspects of what they have taught me and come up with my own approach from the beastings Shaun Gallagher used to give us to the bravado and team sprit Dave Blyth used to instil at training they all have a place in the modern game. Also just the approach to training and games ex pros’ like Simon Mason, Martin O’Keefe and Shaun Woof used to bring that can all be applied to this level…you don’t have to be professional to act it!’

Scott brings with him a wealth of experience playing under some seasoned coaches at Park and the club are hoping this can rub off on the current crop of senior players. One of the first things he has done is link up with a local strength & conditioning coach, LP Strength Academy to provide a specialist coach and facility to help with the fitness of the players. Lee Plant owner and head coach at LP was keen to link up with a local sporting team and getting involved in team sport to expand his current portfolio. Lee will advise the players on all aspects of their fitness, diet and nutrition and be working with the club over pre-season for fitness testing as well as taking sessions during the season at his facility in Wallasey Village. ‘Fitness is key for rugby especially at this level where you have a range of body shapes and fitness levels, hopefully bringing Lee on board will enable us to push on and get everyone’s fitness to where they need to be to compete in this league, as a great coach once said don’t be the fat kid at the BBQ who won’t take his top off!’

Scott’s first task will be to get the lads in shape sharpish and ready for pre season and then the usual early round of the cup. ‘My aim is to get the whole club playing the same way and style so that when the inevitable selection problems happen the lads who slot in will know what to do. Like many junior clubs in the area now we are struggling for numbers and its important when you call on those lads that they can fit in. Its hard to build competition for places as availability seems so sporadic, its nothing new these aren’t the first rugby players to have jobs, kids, shifts, war, tickets for the match or cranky wives so we just need to deal with it when it happens and hope the lads that come in do well, things then get interesting as I want to reward the players that train and do well and make themselves available with selection, so those with the excuses may find themselves not getting straight back in. We also need to get the lads who may have drifted away from the club back down and playing again so we can get 2 teams out each week, gone are the days of most clubs getting 4 teams out.’

So far training numbers have been ok and hopefully this will continue into Autumn when the nights draw in and the champions league and Europa league return to TV on training nights! The addition of the training facility at LP will help and also food will be provided after training and the bar will be open so injured players and club members can still come down and support the club.

If you are interested in joining or returning to play or just want a bit of a break from home and some rugby then training is every Tuesday and Thursday 7pm (prompt) start, the box of doom awaits anyone who is late !