Where do we go from here

In the past Thumper has never focussed on winning. Next year the focus will be entirely on the Premiership. There will be a 30 man squad of seasoned professionals. To achieve this the Club will be having a clear out. After some probing Thumper admitted this would be less than Saracens (18) but would be in double figures so somewhere in the range 10-17. The intent is to recruit more players and there is a £1m pot from the RFU for Clubs that have an average of 16 English qualified players playing in the Premiership  and European match squads. Currently we average 18 out of a 22 man match squad. This small squad will be bolstered by 4-5 Academy players who are capable of stepping up when there is a shortage though injury or England calls. Thumper was challenged that this was too small when there are 4 or 5 injuries and a couple of England calls. He was adamant that it was enough. Time will tell.

According to Thumper, recruiting overseas is a nightmare and cited Melon  and Mark Andrews as examples. Personally I don’t agree as it was very apparent from televised S12 that both players were well over the hill and carrying injuries when we signed them and shouldn’t be used as examples of not signing from the SH.  You cold equally use people like Burke, Nick Evans and Butch James as examples of why you should. Thumper went on to say that he regards S14 players as too soft as they only play about 20 games a season and can’t cope with the demands in the NH.  Again, a generalisation that I don’t agree with and there are plenty of examples including the ones mentioned above to prove the point. His ideal target player is aged 26-27 and experienced at a high level though not necessarily S14

Fletcher etc

The Club had got into a position where the “monkeys were running the zoo”. Many of the players had spent all their rugby career under Fletcher and only knew one way of playing.

Dickson was getting married and his girlfriend was out of the area so it was apparently not a rugby decision that he left though Thumper was not amused that the first he learnt of it was when Dicko told him that he’d signed

Tait had been nominated as a FB by England and therefore that was where the Club had to play him. It was thus a decision of whether to offer Burke (Recuperating in Oz) or Tait a new contract. It was decided to go with Tait as there was always a risk that Burke wouldn’t recover .  Tait then decided to leave and although the Club went back to Burke with it’s tail between it’s legs it was too late as he had committed himself to retirement. Alex Tait is seen as the full time full back replacement  for both of them.

Woods had signed a new contract with us “because of Fletcher”. When Fletcher left he said he wanted to leave too. Thumper said he never stands in the way of a player who no longer wants to play for the club. If however they have anything outstanding on their contract he would demand a transfer fee.

Speaking of Bates and Tait he believes we have the perfect combination  and described Bates as a great rugby thinker and Tait as the hard man who is the perfect foil for him.

ST prices.

Thumper admitted that he got it terribly wrong last year ( I would argue for several years and last year was the final straw). Last year was the lowest ST take up ever and he accepts that ST holders were further aggravated by the discount on prices this year.

Next year games are to be categorised as A, B or C and prices have been set on per seat per category. Examples of an A game would include Leicester, Irish, Wasps etc. There will be a minimum of 4 of these, 6 B matches and 8 C matches (Challenge Cup and the third home Premiership matches etc). ST prices have them had a 70% discount applied to the total of the on the day prices. An example of the differential pricing  is that a middle tier seat in the West for an A game will cost £40 but £25 for a C game.

Last year’s ST was based on 14 games but this year it will include 17-18 games so the price per game is 60% of this year. Junior prices have also been drastically reduced with the objective of making if financially possible for families to come regularly. The Club have targets 1000 U16 STs and a junior can now get in for £4. Thumper gave a commitment that no special offers will be set at less than the average ST per game price.

Game plan

Asked about the kicking down field Thumper said that before the season they had carried out an analysis of the ELVs in the SH and concluded that the coaches wanted to keep the ball in play as much as possible (Similar to Wales strategy).  It was pointed out that some other teams didn’t seem to kick as aimlessly as we do eg Bath, Irish and it was agreed that this was because they have pace on the wings. Before the season the Club believed we also had that. Thumper offered the following comment- Phillips has pace but has defensive issues, Visser also has pace but has other factors that affect his game. Williams has plenty of pace and they are pleased with him. Rudd was not mentioned, which I think says it all. Thumper said that the Club has to rectify this lack of pace in signings this year.

As he had said nothing about the objectives for the team on the field I asked what the target was for next year and was pleased to hear that it was a top 6 finish. He said that in many respects the worst thing that could happen  would be if we won the Challenge Cup this year and played in the HC next year as we are not ready for it

Hog Roast

The Club had an agreement with the chap who ran the outlets in the past and he put the hog roast on.  It transpired that he was illegally slaughtering the pigs on his brother’s farm so the Club had to drop him. They tried to do it themselves but made a mess of it. All the outlets are now run by a well know Catering company who have another year on their contract. Thumper will speak to them about the hog roast

Bar Prices

Why are the bar prices not the same in East and West? Thumper didn’t appear to be aware of this. Initially he replied that it was to make money but after realising that the question wasn’t asking about the Corporate areas he said he saw no reason why the West bar shouldn’t have the same prices as the East and would look at it.

Bar Service

The move to Friday nights was said to be the start of the downturn in service levels as it is very difficult to obtain decent staff on Friday in competition with the city centre. Sundays when the Uni is in term is the best  as they provide the labour.  Saturday is also dire as it is proving impossible to get staff. This is one of the topics to be discussed with Northumbria as they employ lots of staff and possibly could provide regular staff.

Misc

In answer to a question Thumper said that all players’ salaries and media rights are fully paid up and no money is outstanding. The problem earlier this year was down to cash flow as the Club had planned on a different home away sequence to that finally decided upon by PRL and this affected Media rights payments.

The meeting then closed with Thumper accepting that he had failed to communicate well enough with supporters in the past and promised to ensure that didn’t occur in the future.

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