In the first of a four-part series reflecting on the best part of a decade at Old Bath Road, the strength and conditioning guru reflects on his first year at the club.
He started: “I’d done an S&C qualification and was working with Owen (Root) at Westgate Secondary School – he was coaching at Rams and said, ‘would you be interested in coming and doing some work with the guys in the summer?’
“Owen spoke to Joe (Southwell), he said ‘yes’ and my first day was a pre-season testing – I did some data collection, and then I never left!
“Joe’s wife was pregnant at the time and two games into the season they’d had the baby, and I was on the touchline on my own, doing the warm-up and game. Everything just fell into place.”
Perfect start ends with promotion
Daryl’s arrival came in the summer of 2018 and proved something of a lucky charm with Rams winning National Two South before finishing as Level Three runners-up in the Covid-shortened following campaign.
And he continued: “I do remind people I came in and we got a promotion! But that year we worked well together – we had a small gym, but it was at the time Seb (Reynolds), Danny (Batty) and Owen had identified putting a big emphasis on fitness.
“Joe would be doing some sprint stuff, I was doing off-feet bits and we just had a very good connection from the start.
“He was leading the programme and if he told me to go and do something, I’d do it.
“It was my first time working with rugby players, so I was often asking him for advice – similarly when I was doing stuff for the forwards, I’d ask Owen because I had no real idea.”
‘A great response from players and results spoke for themselves’
Despite only losing twice in becoming champions, Rams won several close contests with impressive final-quarter efforts.
And a grateful Daryl paid tribute to the club for believing in him and Joe, stating: “We never set out to prove strength and conditioning was the best thing ever, we just threw everything at it in the hope it would pay off on the pitch – and it did.
“My background as a personal trainer, but especially working in a school, gave me the confidence to just crack on and take sessions.
“We were there for two or three hours before training dragging equipment outside, setting up a big circuit so we could get the players on enough equipment – dumb-bells, barbells, plates.
“We saw such a great response from the players and the results spoke for themselves.
“I think they appreciated what we were doing, and they saw the benefits – we were playing for 80 minutes with no problem, whereas other sides were falling off around the 55-minute mark.
“Our boys were going and going, and ultimately it was down to them, because everything we did with the programming, the off-field stuff, if they didn’t buy in it wouldn’t have worked.
“We had to sell the product we were putting out, they had to accept it, else it would have been pointless.
“Considering back then the gym was the size of the current shop, it was a memorable year!”
‘Just great fun!’
The off-field fun and games equally left Daryl with fond memories.
He admitted: “My first experience of a rugby initiation was an eye-opener – Joe joked that will be you and I nearly left on the spot – and when I did mine, I just threw myself in and it was such a good laugh.
“Away games were great fun and the first I did was a long over-nighter to Redruth, the bus was bouncing.
“We had a good time, but other than winning the league, my fondest memory was winning at Henley in the new year.
“It got us on BBC news and Joe will kill me for saying this, but he cried at the end.”
