FORMER DROVER GARLAND MAKES A TIMELY RETURN
FLYHALF James Garland has returned to Llandovery, writes Huw S Thomas.
Garland has moved back to Church Bank after a five-year spell with Premiership rivals Aberavon.
He will take on the role of playercoach and will work in tandem with attack coach Gareth Potter.
Garland is seen as a key signing for the Drovers. The 32-year-old played a century of matches for the club between 2011 and 2015 and scored 684 points from fly-half.
Head coach Euros Evans said: “We have lost two influential players from last year’s squad in Jack Maynard and Richard Brooks, but we have recruited well enough to minimise their loss.
“Fly half Jack has moved to Cardiff and No. 8 Richard has retired and it was important we address their departures.”
Llandovery’s back-row options following Brooks’s retirement will be strengthened by the signing from Cardiff of Lloyd Pike and the return of former skipper Phil Day.
Pike, 22, is well known to Evans as he was a successful Coleg Sir Gar captain under his coaching.
Day played 158 games for the Drovers over a six-year period and was in the side who won the Swalec Welsh Cup in 2016.
Four more promising back-rowers in Llandeilo’s George David, the Llangennech pair of Sam Melmouth and Jordan Saunders plus Tom Davies will be waiting for an opportunity.
Other significant signings include full-back Will Thomas and wing Ashley Evans.
Wales 7s squad member Thomas is another former Drover and returns to Wales after a spell with Rotherham. He enjoyed an outstanding season at Church Bank in 2015-16, scoring 10 tries from fullback and was another to feature in the cup-winning side.
Evans played in the Under-20 World Cup final in 2013. He has had spells at Neath, Llanelli and Bridgend and will vie for a place on the right wing.
Others hoping to make an impact are props Liam Tobias (Neath) and Will Carron-Lewis (Aberystwyth), wings George Thomas (Cardiff University), Tom Richards and Ben Griffin (both Brecon) and centre Shane Davies.
The new defence coach is former Llandovery flanker Lloyd Phillips, who rejoins the club after a short coaching spell at Llanelli.
And former club captain Mathew Jacobs will help Ian Brooks with conditioning.
No date has yet been set for the Premiership’s return as a result of the coronavirus emergency.
“When that might be is in the lap of the gods,” said head coach Evans. “But we must be ready for a restart and make plans accordingly. We are desperate to start training together and are waiting for the go ahead.
“The season ahead has a lot of question marks hanging over it and we are all in the dark on how it is going to pan out, but we are all champing at the bit to get going whenever that might be.
“We are hoping to get started in
October, training in small groups and then in November doing some social distancing team training.
“Full-contact training is pencilled in for December and we would like to play some friendly games over the Christmas period. Fingers crossed that the Premiership might start in January 2021.”