I like our opponents, even though they’ve been our bogey side – we won our first game there but haven’t repeated that since, and while we got the better of them at home last season, they’ve taken the rest.
They’re an extremely well-organised and solid team with a mixture of youth and experience, and also have one of the best grounds in the league.
‘You can’t replace experience immediately’
In many ways our last two results before Christmas reflected the first half the season.
We went to Rosslyn Park who were second in the table and we were outstanding, but then we visited a struggling Dings side and had a bit of a nightmare.
That’s not to take anything away from them – they put more than 50 points on Rotherham earlier in the season and deserved the win.
But it’s what I’ve been warning people about from the summer.
You can’t replace experience immediately, a 30-year-old will have more knowledge than someone 10 years younger – but the way to get that is through playing.
‘Peaks and troughs will smooth out’
This side have done well though, and the effort is phenomenal. They respond well to the S&C programmes, work extremely hard, and I believe these peaks and troughs will smooth out as they get more game time under their belts.
The most pleasing thing for me is some players have really shown up, because when you get new guys in you always wonder ‘will they be up to it?’
But some are, and a highlight for me was up at Leicester Lions where we gave two teenagers debuts and the whole squad came through extremely difficult conditions to win on a back pitch where there more trees around the ground than supporters!
There’s a real resoluteness to these guys, and when they get the game management, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with.
Brilliant Baker a marvellous advert for rugby
Despite defeat at Dings, it was a special day for James Baker as he reached 450 first-team appearances – it was a magic moment to be able to give him his shirt to mark the occasion.
He was in the same age group as my son Jake, so I’ve known him 25-plus years and he was always regarded by county coaches as too small to be a good prop.
They always picked bigger players and from the start I thought ‘you’re getting this wrong guys.’
He debuted for us as a 17-year-old back row and got head-butted against Trowbridge, but after that we got him one-on-one S&C coaching and in the summer we didn’t let him do big weights, he played Sevens instead.
He’d also started sport as a gymnast which made him very flexible, and what some people don’t realise about tight-heads is it’s not just sheer size, it’s the ability to create the angle to drive your power through your opposite number.
James and his dad Brendan have been big advocates for this, and it’s meant he’s been a nightmare for loose-heads for more than 20 years.
He’s also a great advert for looking after your body and gaining longevity, and I hope he at least gets past Sedgley Park’s Matt Riley (457 caps) to become the highest one-club man since rugby turned professional.
Mind you, I think he wants at least two more seasons and to get to 500!
He’s a marvellous advert for rugby and a brilliant coach to the juniors – his technical knowledge and that of Owen (Root) and Glyn (Mosses) with the Senior Squad means we are very fortunate.
‘Daryl put his heart and soul into things’
I’d also like to pay tribute to Daryl Watson, who stepped down as manager before Christmas having been at the club for eight-and-a-half seasons.
He came from a football background and those guys are a lot tougher than you think – ignoring all the rolling around on the floor – and some are among the hardest people I’ve come across, though perhaps none rivalling Andy Lynch!
I remember winning 53-0 at Birmingham & Solihull on a terrible day and afterwards I pointed out to the squad Daryl was the only one in shorts all afternoon – not all footballers are soft.
He’s been brilliant for the team both with Joe (Southwell) on the S&C and then stepping up to manager. He’ll be missed because he put his heart and soul into things.
He had great commitment, and I think people sometimes forget just how much everyone is putting into this.
For the players, who have to find ways of squeezing their training in around full-time jobs and family, it’s tough.
Under 23s have been excellent
One of the biggest successes during the past month has been a trio of Under 23s wins against Championship clubs Chinnor, Richmond and Cambridge.
The credit must go to Mike Tewkesbury, who came up with the idea of a more competitive approach, and Dave Cox, who was all over it as coach.
Mike’s phenomenally thoughtful when it comes to strategy, and he acknowledges when he was DoR at Reading when they were riding high, one of the things they missed was reaching out to the other clubs in the county.
Learning from that we’ve looked to build relationships by offering our coaching development programme, and it’s been brilliant to see some of the top talent from across Berkshire featuring in these games.
It’s given a great opportunity to see people we hope could make first team in the future, and some of the performances have been excellent.
Great to see George involved – and more to come!
The guys were outstanding at Richmond and while I couldn’t make it to Cambridge, Dave was pleased to beat a side who’ve been running their programme for three years.
Some of these players are really putting their hands up for first-team selection and it’s great to see George Tomlinson in line for a debut today, while Theo Pett-Ridge has also caught the eye.
He showed serious guts at Richmond when he got seriously winded by a double tackle from two big back rows, but he got up and scored two late tries to add to a hat-trick against Chinnor.
He’s on loan at Maidenhead but if he keeps improving, he could be the first Colt since Kieran Leicester in 2019 to get a National One game, which would be great.
One other thing to note was the final game was also played on the 4G at Cambridge University due to the weather, and Andy reminded me that’s got to be the way forward for us.
With the amount of rugby we have played at OBR, the only thing we’re short of is pitch space – and an AGP would resolve that.
Huge thanks to new sponsor RLB Digital
It’s a great honour to have RLB Digital sponsoring this game for the first time, and I congratulate them on taking a record number of seats for lunch!
Founder Matt Sharp is a great volunteer at the club and we’re incredibly grateful for the money they’ve put into the shirts for the junior section – it’s remarkably generous and hugely appreciated.
On the youth side of things, it would be brilliant to have a large crowd for the Colts National Cup last 16 home game with Dorking a week tomorrow (January 18), which is the first of three significant events coming up.
Big events coming up – book your tickets!
The next is the Burns Supper on Friday, January 30 – one of the greatest secrets at the club.
If people realised what a good event it is it would be sold out every year, so I urge anyone who hasn’t come along before to do so! You will not be disappointed.
It’s a wonderful occasion started by Graeme and Claire Cook, Shaun Sheppard, Marcus Noye and others who’ve kept it going, and I love it.
Despite being born in London, two of my favourite poets are Dylan Thomas and Burns – they’re stuff is magnificent.
Burns I particularly enjoy because he wrote in the vernacular, he didn’t pull and punches – a bit of a lothario and morally destitute in some people’s eyes – but it’s a fantastic evening.
And finally, we have our sportsman’s dinner with Nigel Owens on March 28 – save the date for what should be another memorable occasion.
Turning back to today’s game, it will be wonderful to see the Ramily back at OBR after five weeks away.
We look forward to hearing you hopefully cheer the side onto victory.
