Carmarthen Quins Director of Rugby, Steff Thomas believes that for the first time ever there is a strategy in place which evolves around the new Super Rygbi Cymru League and is also one of his main ambitions ahead of the new season which is to develop players.
On developing players, Thomas said: “That’s our role now, first time ever there’s a strategy behind the Super Rygbi Cymru League (SRC) and it outlines our purpose and that purpose talks about first and foremost developing players and you know we are held to account over that. Our licence depends on solid development plans on all players and staff being in place and making sure we have an environment that supports all of that.
“Last season was the start of a transition for us moving between a new coaching group and sort of turnover in the playing squad, whilst the league table looked a little bit disappointing for us, we did have some good games in other areas in terms of starting to rebuild in parts of our squad with younger players,” he added.
Last season the Quins did the double over Neath RFC, put aside both Bridgend Ravens and Pontypool back-to-back. They also recorded an emphatic victory over Aberavon (56-17) at the start of March however, they ended the Indigo Premiership season in 12th place on 38 points.
On the matter of improving from last season, Thomas added: “I think the basis of any sort of successful season, is for the foundations to be built at home and it won’t be no different this year in terms of making it a difficult place to come and win.
“We’ve got our own agenda where we will be focusing on what we need to do to win at home, and equally how to make it uncomfortable for teams to come to visit. We did have two very good performances in particular last season, we beat Aberavon by 40 points and Pontypool.
“We’ve shown that we can go toe-to-toe with people at home and we are a little bit more experienced in quality in certain areas this year and I expect us to be turning out those performances on a regular basis.
The Quins began pre-season with a 26-14 win against Newcastle Emlyn, but last Saturday at Carmarthen Park against the Scarlets, Sion Jones scored a brace as the Quins fell to a 26-14 defeat against a youthful Scarlets side.
On pre-season, Thomas continued: “We’ve had two tough games we’ve played against two full-time units obviously against the Scarlets on Saturday, that was 26-14 and we went toe-to-toe with a very young group with some impressive set piece statistics and possession statistics and we controlled 68 percent of possession on the weekend which is very pleasing for us as a group.
“The signs are there that we certainly got the platform and I think there were five backs that played for the Scarlets on Saturday that will be joining our group as well to add a little bit of stardust on top of our solid platform and to compliment some that we have already got.
“It’s quite exciting really in terms of our first hit out and onto the (Cornish) Pirates now this Saturday which will be a tougher challenge in some respect as they will probably be a bit more experienced than the young players we played against last week.
“In terms of our signings, the majority of them are young players, we have signed Rhys Fawcett from Aberavon who will add a little bit more experience to our front -row, but apart from that our age profile is aligned with the SRC in that we have young players that come from the Scarlets U18s program. We are really excited to be working with some of the talent that we got coming up,” he added.
The Quins begin the new era of Welsh Domestic rugby by hosting Hugh Gustafson’s Swansea side, on the game Thomas said: “It’s a bit of a strange one really, with it starting on the 14th September, I think it’s one of the later starts we’ve had for sometime but the anticipation amongst the group is high there’s a lot of excitement building.
“The boys want to get out there and that’s one of the good things of having a young squad is that the motivation and enthusiasm is really high and that’s great for the environment and culture that we’ve got.
“The first test is always the one you are looking forward to and you want to get that first win to get yourself up and running and we are excited to have Swansea at Carmarthen Park on Saturday 14th.”
When looking at the new league Thomas insisted: “To be fair when you look around the league now it’s a highly competitive league and I don’t believe there will be any whipping boys in there.
“Therefore, I do believe that anyone is capable of beating anybody on any given day. The level of competition is so much better so you will have to be on your best against everybody really.
“I wouldn’t like to think anyone is a competitor but obviously there are teams who are in there with established squads, The Drovers (Llandovery RFC) and Newport in particular have got two very settled squads which will probably give them an edge in terms of competitiveness, but on the day on the day I’m sure they will agree that teams will give them a run for their money.
The Quins recorded only six wins and 18 loses last season. On what he wants to achieve this season, Thomas concluded: “Our ambitions really centre around obviously developing players and talent and working in partnership with the region that is our top priority.
“We want to be competitive and we want to be winning games that’s all it’s about at the end of the day. For us progress is moving up the table and we will be looking at getting ourselves into that top half of the table realistically this year.”
Words By Harry Tovey
HTSPORTSNEWS 