We always like to welcome our visitors with open arms, and I hope they enjoy the day and our facilities, along with the pre-match meal.
Our chef Tor won’t want the limelight, but the catering has been absolutely outstanding under her and having been all over the country for lunches, her efforts take a lot of beating.
On the field, TJs have made a few signings in the summer and I’m looking forward to the game –fingers crossed we have a nice day after we tripped up in the rain at Sale.
I drove up and it started raining at Stafford, carried on for the next six hours and didn’t stop until I got back to Warwick, so Sale ruined my whole weekend!!
New squad makes things so exciting
Two weeks ago against Dings Crusaders was an eye-catching performance – they caught us on a day where the boys played so well and it would have been very difficult to do the highlights because there were so many of them.
I’ve been doing this a long time and this season is particularly exciting because of the sea change in the squad – we’ve got lots of new players in, unknown quantities and it’s going to take a little while for them to gel.
Sale in the rain probably came a month too soon, but we’re only three games in and it’s a long, long season. The team will only get better.
Age group sides getting better and better
Elsewhere, it’s been brilliant to have the Minis and Juniors back in the past few weeks and also to see some of them graduate into the Development XV.
It’s what we want to see, and I give a big shout-out to Mike Tewkesbury for the coach accreditation programme – it’s starting to bear fruit.
I had lunch with (Under 16s coach) Chris Stillman this week and he said his group are beating teams they’ve habitually lost to because of the system.
Other clubs are starting to struggle for numbers while we’re unfortunately having to turn some away – I understand people want to be associated with a successful club – but a lot of the reason for kids coming here is the coaching.
All the sessions are well planned, organised, but also fun and people recognise that.
Good luck to the Red Roses
Today there is also a significant game with England playing Canada in the Women’s World Cup final.
Unfortunately we couldn’t get our fixture brought forward, but we will be showing it in the clubhouse and I wish the Red Roses every success – although the Canadians are going to be a tough side to beat.
‘Let’s average 1,000-plus!’
Finally, a message to our supporters.
We had a great turn-out for the Dings game – possibly more than I expected – and although the lunch was quiet, we had 973 here for the game.
I’d hope to see the same today and it’s a bit of a personal crusade of mine to have the average above 1,000.
If you look at the attendances in The Rugby Paper every Sunday morning, we are up there with Levels Two, Three and Four, and I want it to keep growing.
