IT is a pleasure to welcome Sale FC and everyone to this afternoon’s first National One game of the season.
They’re a great club, their ground is one of my favourites to go to and I respect them a lot – they’ve been one of the best sides in National One for a few years.
They are a gnarly, hard and very good side. We managed to beat them in our first encounter, but they must have taken umbrage with because they’ve defeated us almost every time since!
I first became involved with the first XV in 1997 and every season I get more excited – it’s wonderful to see the way things have grown thanks to the extraordinary efforts of so many volunteers.
There are so many unsung heroes putting in so much effort behind the scenes, and now we get the chance to see the boys out on the pitch. I’m really looking forward to it.
Refreshing the squad
Our squad today features nine debutants and we have signed a lot of players in the summer.
But we knew this evolution was coming because the team who got us to Level Three – and then took us to the top end – was getting older.
This league places a tremendous demand on the players and eventually they start to think more of careers, children, family and they just can’t keep going.
Over the years I’ve learnt things go in cycles.
To be technical they are called Sigmoid Curves – you have to go down before you come back up again – and transitions have to be executed.
If you don’t eventually you’ll fall off a cliff, and indeed it happened to us in the 1990s when we tumbled to Level Eight.
The recruitment has been very good and watching the guys over the summer they’ve put so much in.
We’ve been lucky in the past decade with Joe (Southwell) and Daryl (Watson) doing the S&C before Phil (Hoy) came in and stamped his miserable second row ‘you will do it’ authority on the team!
And fair play to the boys, they’ve responded superbly.
Volunteers must be thanked for state of the ground
Moving on I cannot sing the praises enough of the volunteer team who look after the ground – Roddie, Amanda and Mike, plus the irrigation team.
They’ve worked tirelessly, coming up at midnight or at the crack of dawn to turn water on or off, moving pods around in what’s been the most difficult summer.
I know lots of clubs have struggled and we are lucky we had a far-sighted investor in John Cook who put the borehole in – everyone at the club should go and thank our volunteers for the state of the ground. It’s skill and a stack of hard work.
Away from the Senior Squad, it’s great the juniors have started to come back, they and the Minis are a massive part of Rams and rugby in Berkshire generally. And this year I might be able to take my grandson to the Under 6s!
We’re fortunate to have facilities like the Arena, with its AGP, which has enabled the youth section to do full contact when otherwise they couldn’t due to the hard ground.
‘Ian is in our hearts’
Penultimately, the start of the summer saw the sad passing of the legendary Ian Duncan.
He was President from 1987 to 2024 and has been here through the whole journey we’ve been on.
His support was phenomenal, but he was always so good at asking Andy and I questions about the direction of the club.
He would call you to account, and like John Cook, they understand and demand you keep the values of the place.
I miss him and as the season starts, I’m sure we’ll miss him even more.
But I’m delighted we’re having an Ian Duncan Memorial Dinner on January 29.
It will be a fundraiser for our own charity and the Injured Players Foundation, which is tremendous, and the type of thing Ian would want us to support.
He might not be here in person, but he’s in all our hearts.
And finally, to the supporters, it will be wonderful to see you back at Old Bath Road.
Your backing means so much to the players, so please make some noise and help cheer us on to victory.
