Veteran coach returns to club
PHIL Young is back for a fourth stint.
Or is that his fifth stint? The veteran coach is not certain.
One thing is for sure — he loves the Taieri rugby club and he was not going to stand by and watch the premiers flounder.
He answered the call to return after Murray Roulston resigned on Sunday.
Roulston was unable to commit and felt he needed to step aside.
Young will join Graeme Anderson in a cocoaching arrangement. Young will take charge of the forwards and Anderson will run the backs. ‘‘I got approached and I just didn’t want to see the team or the club suffer,’’ he said when asked what convinced him to return. ‘‘At the end of the day, it is all about the boys. They’ve put in a lot of effort and they are a young team who are showing a lot of promise.’’
Taieri have been rebuilding this year following the departure of some experienced players.
They also lost both starting props to seasonending injuries in the opening two weeks of the Dunedin premier competition.
It has been a tough start to the campaign. They have lost five of their six games and they languish in seventh place, one outside the playoff spots. Taieri won backtoback championships in 2020 and 2021 and collected three titles in four years between 2011 and 2014.
Getting back to those heights may take a few years, Young suggested.
‘‘It is going to be a year or two before they reach their potential,’’ he said, adding they had been competitive this season and were gutsy. ‘‘There has certainly been no lack of effort. It is in our DNA at the club to fight.’’ They will need more of that spirit at Peter Johnstone Park tomorrow. They are hosting defending champions Southern, who beat Taieri 4116 in Mosgiel in round three.
‘‘The Dunedins, the Southerns and the Kaikorais are pretty stacked. There are no complaints but we’ve just got to get through this season and build on it.’’
Harbour will look to bounce back from their 7719 loss to Southern when they host Dunedin, who edged University in a nailbiter last weekend. University will look to inflict a first loss on this season’s Cinderella team, ZingariRichmond, at the University Oval, and Kaikorai will likely be too strong for struggling AlhambraUnion at Bishopscourt.