Match Preview

As the summer draws to a close St Austell RFC begin their new rugby season with 2 tricky fixtures. The Sinners play away to Cornish All Blacks with a 2:30 ko while the Saints begin their campaign with home fixture against Sidmouth kicking off at 3.

This period immediately before the season begins is always an interesting time. You know how your training has gone but still can’t be sure how that will translate on the field once the action starts in earnest. It would be easy to predict great things but that is not the Saints way. It is a long season and to be honest no-one really has much a clue exactly where they stand until after the first 6-10 games. There are always some surprises, good and bad, while you can never predict the impact of injuries or new players.

The close season has, as always, been very hectic and the lads have worked hard to get that flying start we all want to see. Head coach Ashley Morcom has been ably assisted by Dave Clarke and the Ashwin brothers, while new strength and conditioning coach Adam Barbery has made a real impression. Numbers have been pretty good but there are always spaces for new and returning players who want to try their hand. We train every Tuesday and Thursday starting at 7 sharp if you fancy a trot.

Our pre-season games were a bit of a mixed bag. Fixtures against CABS, Bodmin, Bude and Liskeard gave everyone, Saints and Sinners, the opportunity to get game time under their belts and impress. In addition we took the opportunity to blood several second year Colts, a really worthwhile exercise all around. While I can’t honestly say that we looked the finished article in any of these games, I have seen enough in several passages of play to know that the potential is there to have a good season.

The important thing is to arrive at the first few games confident that your structures are sound , players know what they are doing in attack and defence with a decent fitness foundation to execute the game plan. Warmup games and coaching sessions can only tell you so much but we won’t find out for sure until we have the first few games under our belt and see how we stack up when the pressure is on. It is this element of the unknown that’s what makes this time of year so challenging for everyone.

Last season Saints won at home 29-11 in the pre-Christmas game while Sidmouth were defeated 16-48 when the Saints visited them in early April. Sidmouth always provide stiff opposition and approach the game with a great attitude, I have no doubt that this game will be no different. We need to be at our very best to get the win, anything less and the Devonians could roll us over. Nobody has had the chance to build up either a winning or losing mentality so it is very important that good habits are set from the start. Get there now and you can build momentum, lose the initiative and you face a potentially long season to get things right.

It’s a new season and there’s a whole new chapter of our club’s history to write , why not come up see it unfold. So if you’ve missed your regular dose of rugby or if you think you might like to get involved in whatever way get yourself up to Tregorrick on Saturday September 2nd for a 3 o’clock ko.