Samoan Test star Leo buys into Stortford’s low-budget values
THEY will have the smallest budget of any club in National League Division One, but newly-promoted Bishop’s Stortford have no plans to change the way they operate.
After four years finishing in the top three in National Two South, the small Hertfordshire side were crowned champions last May.
There could have been temptation to make drastic changes in order to compete, but former Northampton hooker Andy Long, the director of rugby, is adamant that won’t be the case.
“We believe we are a semi-professional club with a professional attitude that upholds traditional rugby values,” he told TRP.
“We’ve been on one hell of a journey over the last four years from National 3 to National 1 with primarily the same squad of players.
“That’s taken a lot of hard work and sacrifice from a lot of people. The players play for Stortford because they want to. It’s as simple as that.
“They could all go and get more money down the road if they wanted to, but they’ve bought into our journey.
“We want to create the environment where we actually coach players to be better, there are a lot of lazy coaches out there who take that for granted.
“We’ve beaten Cambridge, Old Albanians, Ampthill and even Hartpury College when they were in National Two so we know we can compete against these guys.”
Stortford have managed to pull off one of the signings of the summer with the capture of former Samoa Test star Dan Leo who will bolster the back row.
Long added: “It’s great that we have attracted a player of Dan’s calibre but he’s on the same level as everyone else. He moved his family to the area and he wanted to come and play for us.
“He’s here because of the right reasons and we’re lucky we were able to help him out.
“The other players in the squad are very much learning from having him around in training.”