Heavyweight pack beefs up Bates’ squad

Jul 2 2009 by Nick Purewal, The Journal

He said: “Obviously the toing and froing was frustrating because it left most clubs unsure of what type of player they needed to be trying to attract.

“Thankfully the decision was made and everyone was able to get on with that.

“It was what was expected and, though it changes things again, we know we have a pack capable of dealing with the driving maul in both aspects of the game.

“It is always been difficult to defend, but it is mostly a case of hitting a maul hard, early and in the right places to stop it at source.

“If we can do that while also employing the maul in attack ourselves then we will be in good shape.

“We have a good mix of experience and youth in the pack now with a lot of players who have been around a bit.

“We will look to draw from those experiences and mould that into what we do. We felt like we improved in a lot of areas last season, and once we found our feet we looked dangerous.

“While we can build on that this season, the further rule changes and the sheer scale of the changes in the squad means we have to understand we are going in a different direction to a certain extent rather than continuing down the same path.

Those changes are exciting for the club as a whole, and exciting for the players and coaching staff.

“We are all desperate to build something impressive as a squad and a team, and it is a hugely enjoyable challenge we are just starting to get to grips with now.”