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Positive response to next season's opponents
SINCE my article last week giving a flavour of the fixtures that Doncaster Knights will be playing in in the newly-formed Championship League and British and Irish League Cup, a couple of clubs decided to publish the entire fixture list on their website.
They will, however, have "egg on their faces" as this was a draft and has now been replaced by a second draft which will not be published until after May 21 which is the deadline clubs have for comment.
What the published fixture list has done however is to whet the appetite of many contributors to the various rugby websites up and down the country.
Our director of rugby Lynn Howells is very enthusiastic about both competitions as are the other clubs to whom I have spoken.
Yes, there are details still to be thrashed out, and there is still no sponsor in place. But it is very exciting concept.
There are a small hardcore of doom-mongers still peddling their pessimism but, by and large, the responses have been very positive.
If the doom-mongers think we should revert back to the structure we had last season then all I can say is thankfully they had no say in the decision making process.
No one is saying what we have is perfect but we all need now to get behind the proposals and make them work. If they don't then we can make the changes if they are deemed necessary.
Even though the players are off for May a significant number of them are still coming in several times a week so as not to run into a brick wall when they come back on June 1st.
Scott Pearson, our new fitness coach, who we recruited from Premiership club Sale just before the end of the season, is full of new innovative ideas as well as the tried and tested.
He is busily changing the layout of our gym around and we have also taken delivery of some huge tyres for the lads to lug around as part of their conditioning. To give you a clue as to how big the tyres are, they were delivered by a large Eddie Stobart lorry!
While Scott is planning his early pre-season fitness regime, Lynn and our new assistant coach Brett Davey have been planning the rugby part of the pre-season in tremendous detail.
I've gone into their room on occasions when they are in the middle of a discussion and the depth they are going into is eye opening. I am sure Brett will make a big impact on the Knights with his experience and enthusiasm.
At this time the main focus, however, is on our pitches and we are very fortunate that Keith Hudson, our former and very experienced groundsman, has agreed to help us on a purely voluntary basis by planning the work and setting the weekly work programmes for our two regular groundsman.
While most of us are cursing the rain, they are positively beaming as this is what the newly re-seeded pitches need at this time.
Finally, I don't know how many of you keep abreast of the rugby scene nationally, but it is interesting to note how many of last season's National Division One players have been signed up by Premiership clubs.
Apart from our two – Jamie Lennard and Josh Afu – Exeter have lost five, Bedford two and several others one each. This surely is a good reflection on the increasing standard of the play in our league, a standard that can only get better as the new Championship and British and Irish Cup unfolds. Doom-mongers beware!
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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