Times have changed considerably since Joe arrived back in 2015, his first words one of thanks to the club hierarchy in accepting his vision which has paid considerable dividends with the Rams rising from a relegation-battling National Two South side to one aspiring to Champ Rugby.
He explained: “When I first started, we didn’t even have a gym and there was barely an S&C department. Then we had a sort of mini gym where the club shop is now, and then I said to (Head coach, Seb Reynolds) the way to kick this forward is if we improve the facilities.
“Somehow, we persuaded Gary and Cath (Reynolds), plus Andy (Lynch) to dig deep into their pockets and invest into something which was at least half a million pounds – including the equipment it could even be more – but it’s been a gamechanger.
“Perhaps my favourite memory of the past 10 years was walking through the doors to the new gym. It was a transformational moment of where the team needed to go, and God knows how it got done!”
Standards lifted
He continued: “With part-time players you only have three hours Tuesday, Thursday, then Saturday, but we’ve been able to explore not just running drills to get them fit, you can use all the cardio equipment, off-feet conditioning, and you can adapt to the players’ needs – how much running intensity do they need, how do we tailor it.
“The ability to do some more power-based sessions was massive as we’d never been able to do that in the past, and the S&C had essentially been on the players following programmes in their own gym.
“The building of the gym meant we could take it away from the players having to do it all on their own – the local guys now had a one-stop shop because they could turn up early, get through some good work and then do the actual rugby training.”
Having been involved in getting the side to extraordinary levels since 2015, Joe admitted pre-season work, which in the past three seasons accelerated 10, six and 11-match winning-runs to start the season, were a feather in his pocket.
He added: “We’ve always felt we’ve done pre-season right – if we came up against a Chinnor, Cambridge, Rotherham, Rosslyn Park, we’ve felt we could get them. That’s aligned with the coaching team and our recruitment process – the S&C compliments how they want to play the game.
“We’ve never been the biggest group of guys. Man-for-man, weight-for-weight, when you pack a scrum down, we’re much smaller but we find a way to obliterate though on many occasions.
“And it’s been satisfying to have our guys go out on those early runs and get some early points on the board.”
Man-management key
Other highlights Joe fondly looked back on were the way senior players have extended their careers, as he stated: “It’s taken a lot of micro-managing with different types of players, it takes a lot of background planning and there’s clearly an array of different positions which have to be tailored accordingly.
“Each role has its own niche characteristics to work on – you look at the forwards and we’ve been very focussed on making sure their mobile, fast, yet also strong for the scrum.
“As the game goes forward everything gets faster, stronger, quicker, and the way things have adapted from when I first joined is incredible – you don’t see many fat props anymore!
“Seeing some of the players progress to a higher level has been incredible, but then the likes of James Baker means a lot to me.
“He might have been on the verge of retirement a few years ago, now he’s better than ever, Robbie (Stapley) was struggling for a little while, but we got him in the gym, he worked hard, and it served him great to get a couple more years.
“I can’t name all the players – there have been probably 200-300 in the time I’ve been here – but I hope I’ve helped!”
Tough decision but time for family
Stepping back from a role he has filled outstandingly has not been easy for Joe, with him stating: “It’s been one of the hardest and most emotional decisions I’ve ever made in my life. Since the age of five I’ve always been in rugby, and this will be the first time I’m not regularly going to a club on a Saturday – albeit probably watching most Rams home games!
“And more importantly another reason I’ve got to step back is I am now the lead coach of the Mighty U7s – they’ll be taking a lot of my time!”
Following on the desire to spend time with closer surrounds, Joe added “Seb and I sat down and had a great chat, and I’d just lost the little bit of personal motivation you must have at this level – and I want to spend a bit more time with my family!
“But if it helps the club, I’ll also be around for the first few weeks to help the transition and I’ll be happy to help. Hopefully fresh blood can push things onto the next level.”
A decade is a long time in sport and pioneer Joe admitted: “There are so many good memories, trying to pick out the better ones is even tougher.
“Clifton away for promotion was special, a personal one for me was Henley away in the final play with Ellis Jones passing to Jak Rossiter for the final score.
“The early Rosslyn Park wins, Cinderford, they were great.
Praise for fellow coaches
“And the coaching team have been amazing. Seb and I have always got along, he said ‘do it how you want’ and it seemed to work pretty well.
“Owen (Root)’s a real true friend and I’ve learnt a lot from him over the years; I’ll miss him a lot although he provided one of my scariest life moments.
“(Mike) Tewkesbury had called him back from America to do some Flying 150s and he was enormous, so it was bloody scary. I survived though.
“Danny (Batty) used to come to my primary school at Crazies Hill, later on Shiplake College and he might have also done it at Henley – he’s an amazing person who also had a bit of S&C experience which we used to bounce off each other.
“Harry (Stapleton) was playing when I started and it’s been great having him switch, then Glyn (Moses) joining as well in the past couple of years.
“I’m going to miss Daryl (Watson) massively. He was best man at my wedding, through the club we formed a true friendship and he’s an incredible person.
“I think he’ll continue to do astonishing things with the club as a manager, and I will genuinely miss working with him day-today.”
‘I’ll truly miss it!’
And finishing his fondest farewell note at OBR, Joe was gushing in his final words as he thanked everyone at Rams, closing: “This was my first S&C role after stepping away from playing rugby at 21 following injury.
“It will always hold a special place; it’s been an unbelievable time seeing the way the guys have constantly bonded into a team competing at the top level of English rugby.
“I’ve made so many friendships over the years and as a 21-year-old going to now, this has been a massive stage in my life.
“I’ve grown in confidence from being at Rams and I will truly, truly miss it – the opportunity to develop a team has been incredible.
“I just want to say thank you to everyone at Rams for giving me the opportunity from the board, players, coaches – and I’ll be there ready to hopefully see the next step from the sidelines!”
