The past season was a very difficult one for the 2nds.
With quite a few injuries in the first team, which inevitably saw the seconds being weakened, a few old heads had retired all this added with the usual reliability problems people made it a struggle to get a team each week.
eing the first year in the league I feel we competed well although I still feel with a full strength second team we could have won the league or at the least got promoted.
We had no cup run to speak of this year, after beating Minety back to back in the league then cup we were paired against Chippenham. This was a tough game where we always looked second best.
It has been highlighted this year the need to find another hooker and prop in the second team. There were a number of occasions when the second team played without a recognised hooker or prop. This meant that they struggled to secure their own ball from scrums and lineout’s always putting them on the back foot.
The positives for the season were the following; Kiwi Rob, after playing most of the season with the twos and performing well he deserved to get his chance with the ones. Donovan proved to be solid in the midfield and is progressing well. In his first season at the club Steve Chadwick made himself a regular in the team.
Unfortunately not much young blood came through apart from Andy Tiley who unfortunately got injured and missed the last 3 months of the season.
With the number of seconds that experienced southern counties last year the team can only benefit.
All we seemed to be lacking for most of the year was a few old heads to take control at crucial stages; this could have made a huge difference.
I feel with the added presence of Tim Russell and Craig Avent next year the second team will be the outstanding team in their league.
