The clocks went back this weekend and this morning I set off at 530 in pitch darkness from my home in Cornwall to Twickenham to start a busy week. I hate the dark mornings but as I drove up the A303 I was pretty excited about some of the things happening at the moment. I started the day with Lorraine and Kirsty interviewing candidates for the new position of Community Programme Manager, a key role which will lead on building a community programme around the WWRC15 tournament. It is an exciting position which will need someone who can hit the ground running to ensure they deliver against a tight timeline. We want to make sure that WWRC15 is not just about hosting an amazing international tournament alongside the Rugby World Cup but that we also generate more interest in our sport, find new players, new volunteers, new sponsors and create new clubs. A key marker will also be the 2015 National Championships which will take place at the Copperbox in the Olympic Stadium between 2-4 May 2015. This will have a very different feel about it than our championships of the past as we will be looking to run a community programme alongside it, attract spectators, and use it as a test event for the October WWRC15 tournament. We were really encouraged today by the quality of the candidates we interviewed and are optimistic that we will have a really high calibre individual to take on the job.
The Nationals are of course the end point of the 2014-15 season which is only just about to get started with Super Series 1 at Fenton Manor on 8 November. It should be a great season and once again this year we will see new teams taking part. Canterbury have their formal launch on 2 November with a friendly match against Woodbridge, another of our new teams and they will join League 3 for their first taste of League rugby. As well as new teams we will also see some new players in action this season and also, if rumours are correct, a couple of overseas players who were signed up by clubs over the summer!
Congratulations to the Dragons who over the last couple of weeks have moved venue to Wrexham as part of a partnership arrangement with Wrexham University. This should prove a great partnership and well done to everyone who worked hard to make it happen, especially our Wales RDO, Amanda Thomas and Tony Stackhouse and his team at Dragons and local sponsor Walker Smith Way Legal.
Although the international season has ended, the performance team are pretty hard at it preparing for 2015. Following both Staff and Athlete conferences and individual reviews, along with Lorraine Brown, Paul Shaw, Mary Nicholls and our Applied Physiologist Tom Paulson, I took part in the UK Sport annual review of our GB programme and progress. It was a tough day with the team put under the spotlight with some challenging questions and comment from UK Sport staff and independent advisors including England 7’s Head Coach Simon Amor. I am proud to say our team did really well and appreciated the supportive challenge and advice. We did have a good starting point for the review in that for the second year running in this cycle we have met our UK performance target. Next year is a big one for us. Already in the programme is a 4 nation friendly competition in May to be held in Japan, as well as the European Championships in Finland which is a qualifier for Rio 2016, followed closely by WWRC15 – all fantastic competition for our exciting young squad.
Thank you to everyone who attended the AGM in Leicester. All the proposed resolutions were passed and thank you to our Chairman Kevin Aitchison and Trustee Mike Spence who were both re-elected to the Board and agreed to serve for a further three years.
Also thank you to Archie Palmer and LWRC for supporting GBWR to deliver a corporate filming opportunity which has generated some funding for the club and also for us to put into the Super Series. If there are other clubs out there who are interested in working with us in partnership to deliver similar opportunities then let me know.
Finally, there will be news soon of the WWRC15 tournament schedule so if you have not already done so then do register at www.wwrc15.com and encourage others to do the same. This is the event website which will develop along with the event plan and it will have news about the schedule, teams, ticket sales, corporate opportunities and much much more! We already know that demand for tickets will be high so get registered to ensure you get the tickets you and your family and friends want!
I think that is about it for this week – I hope club training is going well for the league events coming up.
David Pond
