Username
Password
MTM17: Academy Lads, Enjoying Rugby & The Future
By Prof
July 28 2006
This is the seventeenth and final report from the Quinssa Meet The Management Evening Dean Richards discusses the young players and their delight in the game as well as a brief look into the future.

Q: Can you give us an update on Tom Williams? 

DR: He’s getting better, he injured his foot two weeks ago and he should be back in two weeks, then saying that he’ll probably injure himself again and be out for two months [laughs].

 

Q: Dean, I am sure that money couldn’t have drawn you away from Leicester, what can we do here at Quins to make it the same?

DR: We have to create a playing environment that they love, they adore and they get a certain amount of success with as well. The Academy boys are starting to come through and we’re starting to get a hard nucleus of players who have been with the club through the youth, the Academy and getting regular first team rugby. You also have to create a competitive team as well. I look at what Tony Russ and Collin Osbourne have been providing the first team with this year and I see a lot of those guys taking us back into the Premiership next year and in five or six years and , if we introduce the right players around them, they will be the core of the side. That will stand us in good stead in terms of getting the right attitude and the right feeling within the club. It’s what makes a club tick it really does you have to have a squad that wants to play for each other, that’s really important.

Q: And they’re all English

DR: Not necessarily so, well the Academy boys are, but I always feel that you have to bring in quality and if the quality comes from abroad then so be it. The thing you look out for first is to make the core of the squad local or to have had it come through the ranks and wanting to play for each other. If you get that core right then you can supplement that with world class players from elsewhere. If you can get that core right then it really sets the club in a really good position. If you detract from that and you start bringing in players in just for the sake of it then you don’t get the team spirit that you want.

One of the pleasing things for me is when we score these days – have you seen Mike Brown’s face when he scores? It’s a real picture for me, it really is. I would like to see that face scoring tries in four or five years time and still getting the same pleasure from it. We’re probably getting another two or three Academy boys coming through over the next couple of years too. Jordan Turner-Hall and Tosh Masson really enjoy their scores too – get all those guys together, supplement with whoever has come through the Academy and with other world class players too there is a real core there. Im looking forward to the future I really am.

Evs & Deano having a bit of fun at the Quinssa Evening ©Dan/wooller.com
Evs & Deano having a bit of fun at the Quinssa Evening ©Dan/wooller.com


At the end of the evening more drinks were bought and drunk, the last few discussions were had, then everyone left satisfied and went home to sleep the sleep of the just


I'd just like to say a big thank you to Mark Evans and Dean Richards for giving up their time, to the club for their help in hosting the evening and to the Quinssa Committee and Members for their assistance and attendance.

Looking back on these seventeen articles from the Quinssa Meet The Management Evening - as a wise man once said "The future's bright, the future's polychrome".


The next Quinssa event will be the Meet The Coaches Evening with Andy Friend and John Kingston on 17th November 2005 at The Twickenham Stoop.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with: