COVENTRY Rugby are now less than a week away from their first pre-season outing against Birmingham Moseley and for supporters, players and coaches the pulse is starting to quicken, writes Paul Smith.
Although the serious stuff is still a month away – when a tricky-looking Friday night trip to the Richmond Athletic Ground to face London Scottish launches the 2024/25 Championship – this Saturday’s Butts Park Arena meeting of two of the sport’s oldest rivals is a mouth-watering prospect.
Cov returned to training after their summer break on July 1 and Alex Rae’s squad are therefore more than ready to swap training paddock for match day.
Rae said: “Human nature being as it is, when you see people in training it’s impossible not to start thinking about combinations that might work.
“But you also have to remember that not every player is a good trainer and we may not see the best of everyone until some games come around. I’m very open-minded and I’m very happy if someone grabs the bull by the horns, steps up in the friendlies and says: ‘I’m playing!’
“It is also difficult not to have one eye on the first league game with London Scottish, start mapping things out and thinking ‘if I picked the team now who would be in it?’
“Those chats are always interesting but it is important to stay open-minded. We bring players to the club because we saw something in them, but when you work with them every day you sometimes see other things and perhaps start to think about them slightly differently.”
Now in charge of his third pre-season, Cov’s boss and his coaching, conditioning, analysis and medical support teams have evolved their approach into one which they believe best suits their rugby identity.
Rae added: “A lot of clubs split their pre-season so there’s heavy duty fitness at the start then rugby gets introduced as the season gets closer.
“We don’t believe that’s the best way of doing things as to us it doesn’t make sense to play games with a ball but train without one.
“Our training is therefore based around rugby and the coaches plus Chris Hart (head of strength and conditioning) and myself plan the sessions to make sure we achieve what we want from them.”
Moseley’s 30-game National One campaign kicks off three weeks ahead of the Championship on September 7 and as a result Adam Balding’s team began their pre-season with a thumping 76-nil win against level five Stourbridge. They will also have hosted Welsh Premiership outfit Pontypool prior to arriving at the BPA.
Coventry host Moseley on Saturday, August 24 with kick-off at 3pm at Butts Park Arena.
