Aberavon RFC Head Coach, Jason Hyatt believes his side has got what it takes to lift trophies in this years Super Rygbi Cymru campaign and he’ll hope to do it with a squad which has an average age of 23 with only four 30-year-olds in the team.
On developing players at the club, Hyatt said: “We are very ambitious as a rugby club, we (Aberavon) are very fortunate to have a great group of supporters and we get supported well whether it’s home or away.
“In turn we want to reward the supporters with success on the field but that goes hand-in-hand with development.
“We saw recently against Reading Rams where we introduced four new players who are playing their first games of senior rugby. That’s a huge step-up from playing U18s rugby or Youth rugby going into senior rugby against almost a pro-standard team.
“We take our development really seriously and we’ve got a great history of development, you go back to Justin Tipuric, Jac Morgan, Ashley Beck, Adam Beard and James Ratti, there’s a whole trail of development since the game has gone pro and we are very proud of that and this takes it that one stage further where we are looking to provide players that step-up to play pro rugby.
“We’ve provided the Ospreys with two of our players Scott Whitlock and Ben Gregory both were invited into the wider group but are now in a full time schedule, so that’s a huge pat on the back of what sort of environment we belong too and that gave us great pleasure,” he added.
Looking further into the development of the 2024/25 Aberavon squad, can be seen with the relationship the club has got with Cardiff University, Hyatt said: We’ve brought in a number of players that have finished now with the UNI, Felix Gilbert, Gwilym Evans, Ed Dunford, have all come through BUCS Rugby.
“Also, we have signed scrum-half Elis Horgan from Bath University and Louis Fletch from Swansea University.
“It’s a great standard of rugby and I think the next step-up is to go into the Super Rygbi Cymru (SRC) and these guys all have hopes of playing pro rugby. We are delighted they have pursued those dreams with Aberavon Rugby and hopefully we can achieve that.
“The average age of the squad is 23 and what we’ve kept a sprinkle of is senior players not just for experience but we believe that they are the best players in their positions in the whole of the SRC. People like Rowan Jenkins, Geraint James, Ashton Evans these are very experienced players and they can add that little bit of experience to the youngsters coming in and that’s part of their learning journey as well which I feel is a key ingredient to have support around you.
“This is the most exciting group that I have worked with throughout the summer. They have worked really hard and that is really pleasing. The energy they provide is phenomenal and their work ethic,”he added.
On that work ethic, Aberavon began their pre-season training on the 27th June where the squad had been scheduled a very demanding start, Hyatt continued: “It was slightly different this year, we started with a checking week on the 27th June, our first session was on the 29th and we set ourselves a really demanding pre-season schedule.
“Normally we train in the summer on Tuesday, Thursday, and a Saturday morning, Saturday Morning being predominantly a strength and conditioning (S&C) session.
“This year we have been in five times a week, our schedule this summer has been on a Tuesday the boys have been in the gym at Ysgol Cwm Brombil, we are very fortunate to have a great relationship with the school, from 5-6 we have a gym session then we use the 3G from 6-7:30 which is a rugby session.
“On a Wednesday morning 6-7am they use the gym and do a S&C session, Thursday is a rugby session, and then one final session on a Saturday 7-8.
“We have set ourselves a very demanding schedule but now as pre-season games have started that has been scaled back, but what it has done has put us in a great position.
“I would say we are well ahead of where we expected to be with so many new players in the squad, we have gelled really well and the coaches have worked exceptionally hard to put our sort of style together and we saw some great rugby against Reading Rams who were really good opposition and it was a great game of rugby.”
Aberavon finished last seasons Indigo Premiership in eighth on 52 points with one of the stand out wins being at home against Ebbw Vale back in November, on last season Hyatt stated: “Obviously where we finished in the league we were a little bit disappointed, but on the positive side of it we took the opportunity to introduce a lot of new youngsters into the team.
“We were definitely in a transitional period looking ahead to the SRC and everything that it was going to bring, so on a really huge positive we took that opportunity to prepare ourselves by looking at a lot of young players which put us in a good position going into the summer when we started putting the squad together.
“It was a bit of a strange season as we didnt have complete confirmation that we were in the SRC until February as there was a lot of debate going on at that time, so when it was actually announced then we started putting the squad together. So from a positive perspective we have put ourselves in a positive position where we have looked at a lot of young players this season.”
The Wizards begin the new league campaign with a trip to the Ciner Glass Community Stadium (Eugene Cross Park) to face Ebbw Vale, Hyatt added: “It’s a great challenge, it’s a tough place to go but we know what Ebbw Vale belong too and we know what we need to provide when we go up to these places, we are fortunate that we are going up there in September and hopefully we have some decent weather so we can play some rugby but we are really looking forward to it.
“It’s always nice to start the season I suppose with a trip away from home and going to a tough side, Jason Strange has done a great job and really it will be good to expose our players to that sort of environment and that standard of play and then we will take it week by week like we do every year.
“We’ve got a very challenging opening period, Ebbw Vale away then Carmarthen Quins at home but I’m really confident with the squad we’ve got and with the energy that has been on show through the summer we can take that into the season and have a really good season,” Hyatt concluded.
Words By Harry Tovey
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