Coachchat atmemory project
Stirling County Rugby Memories Group looked to close to home for a guest appearance at its recent meeting.
Ex–captain and current firstteam coach Eddie Pollock spoke at the November meeting about his time as a player and the time spent playing in Division 2 before finally making it to the top league.
Eddie also spoke of his time coaching Scotland’s Under 20 team coming up against the likes of Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell’s Irish team.
He went on to describe how Stirling County would develop into a semi–professional Super Six team with a premier league amateur “Wolves” team and an “Accies” team at the national league level and ideally a “Wolfhounds” team for social rugby.
The group discussed how players of today are bigger and more muscular and have to be fit for the modern style of play and how this leads to larger squads, rotation of players and demands on players.
Dr Tom de Virgilio from Stirling University returned following his last visit in June to describe research on concussion in sports. He described a new research proposal to explore the effects of concussion in older retired impact-sports players.
This will involve physiological and cognitive measures, with pre and post measures of the effectiveness of omega oil supplements. Further research will lead to increased safety and better outcomes for players.
The next meeting will be at the club at 1pm on Tuesday, December 6 and thereafter on the first Tuesday of the month through to June 2019.