BY RUTH HOLMES
Gavin Purvis, Kesteven Rugby’s Club Secretary and Men’s first XV and Club captain, is leading the charge into a new season.
He is determined the pandemic won’t put Grantham’s rugby club off its stride and reputation for playing exciting and often-inspired rugby. Here he explains how an improved training set-up and whole-Club approach will see the Black Army’s senior men emerge best-prepared for the coming season and beyond.
Summer is often a time to kick back and relax. Not so at Kesteven Rugby. It’s a running joke that it’s only the grass pitches that get time off to recover in the off-season. From early summer after 8 weeks’ rest following the end of the season, Senior and Junior squads are back out in force on weeknights for pre-season fitness training.
This year is no different. The Club and its world-class team of coaches are focusing hard on preparing squads across the Club for whatever the Covid-19, government and RFU guidelines – and the opposition – bring.
As Gavin explains to the Grantham Journal, the new set-up will make Kesteven’s Senior Men’s squads even fitter and more prepared than ever by leveraging and nurturing the depth in the Men’s and Colts game at Kesteven Rugby.
How is the squad coping with not being able to play rugby as usual?
We are all in a difficult situation. In many ways, the RFU and government guidelines have not made a lot of difference to us apart from the numbers we can train in. We always come back in the summer concentrating on pre-season fitness. The majority of our drills are fitness. We don’t really implement balls and that sort of thing for the first few weeks, if not months. Yes, the range of equipment we can use has been massively dialled down. However, last week the RFU indicated that grassroots rugby clubs can move on to the next stage of the Return to Rugby Pathway, which means we can now train in groups of 20 at Kesteven Rugby.
So, I think we’ve coped pretty well under the circumstances, with Freddie (Tuilagi, Kesteven Rugby’s Men’s First and Second Team Head Coach) and Nath (Nathan Smith, Men’s First Team Coach) concentrating on our fitness.
Because of how the groups have had to be organised, we have had to bring in some extra coaches – Andy Singer (Kesteven Colts Head Coach) and Dimitri Arlando (Kesteven Rugby’s Chairman and U14 Coach) to help us out. This has made a huge difference this year.
We’ve also tried to implement getting the Colts to train with us so we can break down that elusive barrier where half-way through the season when a Colt turns 17 they come and join us. Now they will know us all and will have trained with us, and vice versa, so that’s great. Hopefully, all of this will put us in a good place for the season when it starts.
What are your thoughts on when the season can start?
We all want a rugby season. When and if it happens, the key thing is we are ready for it and start as we normally would and mean to go on. That’s across the Club really. The Juniors are back, as are the Ladies, and the Men have been hitting fitness hard. So it’s just making sure we are all ready come what may.
The RFU will push to have us back playing as soon as they can because they want grassroots clubs to be playing. Obviously, we are led by the government guidelines so we will just have to see what happens with that.
How will the conferences work?
At our level, Midlands Division – Midlands 3 East (North), the Men’s leagues are split into two halves geographically. So, in theory, the first half of the season for us would be local. Then, if there is enough time left in the season, we’ll progress to the second half. Basically, then all our matches will be either home or long-distance away journeys, I think. So, it will be an interesting season! I think the guys have got to be prepared for a lot of long-distance travelling later in the season.
You had two great runs of form in the 2019-20 season. What are you taking from last season as a whole and what are your aspirations for this season?
Last season was difficult. It was the first full season under Freddie and Nath and the new coaching set-up with new ways of playing and new ideas. I think the guys – all of us – found ourselves a little overwhelmed at points, so we scaled it back. To everyone’s credit, both times the guys quickly picked it up and started to play good rugby again.
The difference between last season and the season before is that we weren’t really fighting relegation at any point – not that we’ve ever been fighting it as such. Relegation is always a concern and as a team you can always sort of see it on the horizon as a threat.
But last season we were always more in the hunt for promotion. We are going to be focused on going for promotion again. That’s what we want to achieve. Whether that is going to be possible, we will see.
We need to increase the depth and the training numbers, which we are doing. We’ve lots of new joiners and returners like James Cowley, who is a big person for us to have back. He’s been in Canada for two years, but was Player of the Season before he went. Also having the Colts training with us, gelling with and understanding the players and the moves early in the season will pay dividends as well.
I think any club this year is going to have to focus on consolidation because of Covid. We don’t know what’s going to happen. It wouldn’t surprise me if we got to the end of the season and we’ve played rugby and the RFU says there’s going to be no promotion or relegation off the back of it. It’s just a case of being ready and on form so we can deliver. Ever since I took over as Captain the aspiration has been to get promoted again and that’s always what we will aim for.
Speaking as Club Captain, what are your hopes for the Men’s Second XV?
The Men’s Seconds at Kesteven have an incredibly important role because it gives a platform and an opportunity to develop talent. It gives Colts the opportunity to experience adult rugby because to go from Junior rugby to adult first-team rugby is quite a step up, both in terms of pace and power.
It also gives new people coming into the club a chance to play and for us to assess them properly. I think also it gives guys who haven’t played before a chance. We’ve had it before where people come in and are not quite ready for the First XV league matches, but after having played in the Seconds we all reap the rewards when they are ready to move on to the Firsts and play regularly.
Before it was very much chicken-and-egg with the second team. How we’ve done it this year changes that. Is it going to change the First XV this year? Probably not. Is it a great thing for the whole Club going forward? Yes, it absolutely is.
What makes Kesteven Rugby special? What keeps you here?
I started playing rugby when I was 17 years old in my last year of school. Rob Sheardown [fellow First XV stalwart and forward] forced me into it! I think I played the first half of the season at King’s and the second half of the season at Kesteven.
So, I went from never playing rugby to Kesteven Men’s first team captain in the space of 10 years. Basically, I fell in love with the Club and I put a lot of time and effort into it now. [Gavin is also the Secretary of Kesteven Rugby Club.]
I do think it’s rugby as a whole that is special. You can go to any rugby club in the world – me and Rob certainly did in New Zealand – and you are made to feel welcome. It’s just part of the sport. It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, what you are, who you are, you are made to feel welcome and I think that’s what is so important about rugby.
Are you wanting to return to rugby or give it a go? For more information, please visit www.kestevenrugby.club to find out how you can get involved in your local rugby club.
Speaking as Club Captain, what are your hopes for the Men’s Second XV?
The Men’s Seconds at Kesteven have an incredibly important role because it gives a platform and an opportunity to develop talent. It gives Colts the opportunity to experience adult rugby because to go from Junior rugby to adult first-team rugby is quite a step up, both in terms of pace and power.
It also gives new people coming into the club a chance to play and for us to assess them properly. I think also it gives guys who haven’t played before a chance. We’ve had it before where people come in and are not quite ready for the First XV league matches, but after having played in the Seconds we all reap the rewards when they are ready to move on to the Firsts and play regularly.
Before it was very much chicken-and-egg with the second team. How we’ve done it this year changes that. Is it going to change the First XV this year? Probably not. Is it a great thing for the whole Club going forward? Yes, it absolutely is.
What makes Kesteven Rugby special? What keeps you here?
I started playing rugby when I was 17 years old in my last year of school. Rob Sheardown [fellow First XV stalwart and forward] forced me into it! I think I played the first half of the season at King’s and the second half of the season at Kesteven.
So, I went from never playing rugby to Kesteven Men’s first team captain in the space of 10 years. Basically, I fell in love with the Club and I put a lot of time and effort into it now. [Gavin is also the Secretary of Kesteven Rugby Club.]
I do think it’s rugby as a whole that is special. You can go to any rugby club in the world – me and Rob certainly did in New Zealand – and you are made to feel welcome. It’s just part of the sport. It doesn’t matter where in the world you are, what you are, who you are, you are made to feel welcome and I think that’s what is so important about rugby.
Are you wanting to return to rugby or give it a go? For more information, please visit www.kestevenrugby.club to find out how you can get involved in your local rugby club.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.