Vagabonds Rugby Club will look to kick off their Counties 3 ADM Lancashire/Cheshire league campaign with a win this weekend.
The Ballafletcher side head to Burnley in their opening league fixture in a league which also features Ramsey, returning to the English leagues for the first time in several years.
Vagas experienced a mixed season in their last campaign, with all their wins coming at home as they finished 11th.
However, with coach Franzy Germuishys having had a summer to work with his squad, they are confident about being able to build on last campaign.
He said that while the club had a challenging season last time out, the performances showed the team’s character.
We knew from the offset it would be a long season, or would be a tougher season than the year before but the boys really did step up”
Progress
While pre-season was somewhat interrupted by a touring team pulling out last minute, Franzy said the club has worked to put on different sessions this summer including circuit training and yoga/stretching.
He is also enthused about the development of some of the younger players coming in alongside the experienced heads.
“We have loads of young boys, people that’s just stepping in like Joe Lowe’s son Andre,” he said.
“He’s only 18, and he’s not actually played senior rugby yet, so last year he came to a couple of sessions, but he didn’t really play. But hopefully this year we can have him in.”
Franzy said with other teenagers coming into the team, he hopes to be able to help them develop as players.
Doing It Right
While travel is difficult for all sides heading off-island, Franzy said it is helpful to be able to rely on captains Dan Bonwick and Matt Rockwell and other senior players to build the team around.
He said looking into the new season, beyond finishing higher than last year, success would be a strong mid-table or higher performance.
A successful season for us would be aiming to be mid table, or above, sort of the mid table breakthrough.
“So if we can be just at the bottom of the top half, I think we’d be really happy, but it’s just looking at what you’ve got available on your squad, you know, and see how the guys develop.
“Last season we had two big neck injuries and two big knee injuries and suddenly you’re four players down and that’s nearly a third of your starting team.
“You can train and do pre-season and condition the boys, but accidents do happen, it’s a contact sport, but I always say, do it right. Don’t try do too much or hurt somebody, because that’s when you can get hurt yourself, just do it in the right way.”
Adding on the importance of playing the game the right way, Franzy said: “You don’t have to be big, obviously it helps in a contact sport,
We have a saying at the club, dynamite definitely comes in small packages, so hopefully the boys can take what we worked on in the pre-season into the new season.”
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