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Written by Phil Thorpe
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Thursday, 20 July 2006 |
Sedgley announce plans to fly to away games as pre-season training gets more intense
The Tigers hope to make 2006-2007 a high-flying season in more ways
than one when the new campaign gets underway in September.
The forward-thinking club has made the decision to travel by air to three of the furthest away National League One fixtures in the south west, and, hopefully, the switch will reward the Tigers with some vital victories.
It is believed to be the first time a sports club from the Bury area has used air travel to get to a domestic game.
Last season the Tigers traveled down to the three away clashes at Exeter, Plymouth Albion and Cornish Pirates (Penzance) by coach on Friday morning with an overnight hotel stay ahead of weekend fixtures.
All three games saw them suffer heavy defeats, 53-8 against the Pirates, 55-7 against Plymouth and 47-10 at Exeter and according to Sedgley president Geoff Roberts the pre-match preparation could well have had a lot to do with it.
”When we assessed last season as a whole we looked at those away trips with overnight stopovers and realised there was a lot of down time and boredom for the players,” he explained.
”The change of habit definitely affected one or two performances and this is all about trying to keep disruption to a minimum.
”If you are sleeping in a strange environment, with people you are not used to, you invariably don’t rest as well as you should, it’s understandable.
”Hopefully, if the players spend the Friday night with their families, it will be more like a home match routine and that could be a big factor.”
The Tigers will be taking advantage of the good relationship they have with local coach firm Hollins Travel for the three trips.
One of the company’s buses will take the players to Manchester Airport on the Saturday morning with another one going down ahead of the players with the kit and gear ready to pick them up when they get off the plane at Exeter Airport and transfer them to the relevant ground.
The change could even work out in the club’s favour economically with low-cost flights working out cheaper than the price of a hotel stay.
”We had looked at what it would cost to fly the team to away games in the past but the cost was always prohibitive,” added Roberts.
”There weren’t the same available there are now. The market has changed dramatically and the Flybe service to Exeter suits us perfectly. It will be an interesting exercise and I think it might well work, everyone will hopefully feel a bit fresher.
”We want to try our best to prepare the way we would for a home match and
players are individuals and this will give them a chance to stick to their normal routines.”
The first time the new arrangements will be tested is when Sedgley travel to Plymouth Albion on Saturday, November 11.
The Cornish Pirates fixture follows in the New Year on February 4 with the Exeter Chiefs trip scheduled to be the final game of the season on April 28.
Sedgley Director of Rugby, Tim Fourie, has been thrilled with the
progress the players are making since arriving back for pre-season
training on July 3.
There’s plenty of hard work to be done during the Monday, Wednesday
and Friday evening sessions but, according to Fourie, the players are
enjoying the more structured approach that’s been planned this summer.
”We’ve had three very good weeks so far,” he said.
”This year we are getting a lot more physical and technical work into the sessions earlier, whereas last year we concentrated on fitness.
”It’s about things like getting the lads understanding what to do at the line-out as well as concentrating on mauling, rucking and tackling.
”We’re also doing what I call ‘60 per cent’ work, where the players start off at 60 per cent effort then go full-on when they are matching each other.
”We start off slowly with a warm-up, but by the end of the session we take it to a game situation.”
Another difference to last summer’s preparations is that club stalwart Steve Hazzelby and Richard Senior are coaching the second team leaving Fourie, backs coach Andy Northey and first team skipper Jimmy Ponton to concentrate on the firsts.
”It’s a lot more structured approach,” added Fourie.
”We plan week-by-week and sometimes two weeks in advance, it’s a bit
more organised and it makes a difference.
”There is more variety and the lads enjoy that. They can concentrate better as we don’t leave them to stand around chatting, we keep them on their toes and very busy.
”Hopefully they can take their good work into the start of the season. We don’t want to do what we did last year when we defeated Coventry on the first day then went on a losing run.”
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