We would love to get an insight into Grant, the person, the coach and your rugby journey. Could you share with our supporters a little bit about yourself….

#Grant - I've been playing rugby since I was about 10 years old. I started by playing rugby league, which is kind of uncommon, in the South of England. Started playing Union at secondary school and also at the local club.

I loved playing both codes, both have different challenges and both have different kinds of personalities. It gave me really good exposure to loads of different coaching styles. This inspired me to take an interest in coaching and while I was in education I started doing my coaching awards progressing through to level 4.

#Peter - Getting to a level 4 coaching standard is quite an achievement and we are lucky to have you imparting your wisdom to the players. Let me go down a different path with the next question, which is close to home for CS Stags 1863. What attracted you to taking on the challenge that is CS Stags 1863?

#Grant - I think the thing that attracted me most to come to work with, CS Stags would probably be, the uniqueness of the challenge, it's a completely different experience.
Coaching a bunch of guys who want to come and train really hard once a week and still have a balance in the rest of their life. This definitely intrigued me as it is a really big coaching challenge when your competing against teams operating with a higher level of resources.

We'll be training at least half of what those other guys are doing, so we need to think about how we coach, how we can get information across and connect the players both prior to the season, but also during the season. So, that was definitely something that attracted me.
I liked the idea of that challenge. I think also, the way that the guys play and want to play rugby drew me in. The club seems to have a real hunger to entertain and throw the ball around a little bit. Perhaps we need to tighten up some areas, which haven't been there previously, but that's okay. I think we've definitely got the players to do that. I really believe in the staff team we've got as well to be able to ensure the players are both physically fit, and also tactically and technically certain on what they need to be doing to compete in the league.

Then there is the League itself, I mean, there's some fantastic teams in this league, a couple of teams local to me in Hertfordshire, like Hertford and Tring. We've got massive respect for them and the players and their coaches. You've got teams like Wimbledon and teams like the newly promoted North Walsham and the fantastic record that they've had over the last year. It's a great place to be playing some really good quality competitive rugby and a great testing ground for us coaches.

#Peter - Now that we have a sense of why you came to CS Stags, it would be great to understand your vision for CS Stags 1863.

#Grant - So my vision for the club is very, very straightforward. We want to make sure that we're sustainable at this level. That includes all things on and off field. On the field, we need to play a style of rugby, which attracts players, retains players, but also sustains the level. There's a balance between throwing the ball around in your own 22 and ensuring you're catching drive game is good. We just need to ensure we've got a really balanced approach to the game, making sure that the medical team, and all the rest of the infrastructure really supports performance.

If we want to get one training session a week, we need to make sure that all of the players have everything they need around them to be able to turn up, train hard and then play even harder. We need to make sure our medical team is spot on and has all the support it needs to perform. Having the understanding of the executive committee who've been fantastic since I've come on board, with every single one of them being supportive. They come to training sessions and they really integrate well with the lads, which is something I think is pretty uncommon and we're really lucky that we've got that. So just making sure everyone's really clearly working off the same page. And I think clarity is so essential if we're going to perform so that's a big piece of the vision.

I think that the game plan is the key bit, making sure that we're sustainable and we win because ultimately we're here to win. We're all competitive people.

We also recognize the fact that there's been a lot of players lost between last season and this season, we need to make sure that we don't have to fight so hard with recruitment. Chris Swann, our Director of Rugby has done an incredible job of bringing players in and the right kind of people importantly. They're going to add value on and off the field and they have done already. We just need to make sure that we don't have another summer like we've just had, we're a bit more sustainable going forward and people know what they're getting when they come to us and word gets out about what we're trying to do really.

#Peter - You shared with us why you came, what has been your experience with us so far?

#Grant - It has been really enjoyable. I can't fault it really. We've worked incredibly hard over the summer being furloughed from work has probably been a bit of a blessing in disguise because we've been able to commit so much time to what we're trying to achieve. As I mentioned, the recruitment of players and ensuring that they're happy and really connecting with everybody in the club through the executive is giving us that opportunity.

There's been some challenges in different areas, which I've had to learn about this club and about these players and the people involved, but you get that anywhere. To add to that we’re working in very different times.

Understanding how we can be successful on and off the pitch right now, but also in the future, has been a big part of what we've discussed and we found some amazing stuff that we feel is really going to support our players. Ensuring that they're happy in both their work lives and family lives. If we can get those things right, then the rugby comes easy. We want them to come to us and just enjoy themselves, enjoy playing hard physical rugby and also really fast open rugby.

We want to test teams this year, we want to be a team that no one wants to play against because we're just going to be nonstop. I think that from what I've seen in training so far I can't fault any of the players or the staff, it's been full commitment and a great work rate. This is especially considering the fact that no one knows when we're going to play a game.
The fact that people are joining us with the right mentality and commitment has been pleasing. They’ve enjoyed it and are spreading the news and we are seeing a slow ripple of more new players coming down.

Short term great experience to start with and I’m just really excited to see what happens when we are finally allowed to put on the jersey on a Saturday afternoon.

I think the experience so far has been great. I can't fault it.

#Peter - Let’s expand on the players and talk about how you see the squad coming together for when the season starts?

#Grant - We've got an incredible set of players who have got a real range of skill sets, really pushing each other in training, the way we've trained has been really, really key.
It is a lot about reciprocal conversation and shared ideas. I want players to come to us and know that their voice is going to be heard while also being prepared to listen to others as well. We've done a lot of technical and physical work to make sure that the tactical outcomes we want can actually be realised. Along with the mental skills of how we engage with each other when we're having to be appropriately honest about things, maybe when things aren't as good as we want in training, but also how to give positive reinforcement as well. Not always the most comfortable thing for a group of blokes in their twenties.

The guys have been fantastic in that sense, really buying into it and respecting the fact that actually not all coaches are that comfortable with handing over that level of trust to the players, but certainly John and I are focusing on this.

I am really pleased to have John Lacey on board with us he's come across with a great pedigree, not just his qualification background, but also his coaching experience. Between him, myself, Chris, our director of rugby and Emer our head of medical, we've got a group of people who are really keen to make sure the players have got everything they need in place to turn up and perform.

So far the training sessions have given me great hope. We can do a huge amount of damage in this league. And when I say that I mean we're just going to play some great rugby that people are going to hopefully find difficult to play against. Our approach is not going to be set out in playbooks and being really heavily prescribed. We will need to understand how to react in the moment and we're working really hard on player's decision making and supporting them in that. Giving them the confidence to have a go, that’s what you want as a player, coaches and people around you that back you up. So far so good on that front.
We're just really looking forward now as we've got a rest week currently, but we're moving into a new training block one which is a bit more focused being that we are in RFU stage D at the moment, so we're able to move our training forward and it's starting to really feel like rugby again.

We are all excited that, hopefully, we can get started in games sooner rather than later, and take on the challenge of some of the fantastic sides in this league.

#Peter - Thank you Grant for your time and for sharing with us. Just leaves me to wish you, Paul, Chris, Emer and all the players, all the very best for the coming season, whenever it may start!

Interview compiled by Peter Kasic