Windsor ‘in high spirits’ despite troubling start
Emmett feels side are ‘building well’ under new coach Symons
Despite a less than ideal start to the season, Windsor RFC are in high spirits and ‘building incredibly well’ under head coach Andy Symons, according to captain Chris Emmett.
The Royals have lost all four of their games in the Regional 2 Thames League so far, with their heaviest defeat coming against heavy-hitters Hammersmith & Fulham on the opening day (87-5), while they were desperately unfortunate to lose 29-28 to London Cornish a week later having been 28-7 up at one stage in the tie.
On Saturday, they were beaten 31-7 by London Irish Wild Geese.
In their defence, Symons’ men are yet to utilise home turf for a competitive match this season as the first team pitch often struggles to deal with the changing weather and much of the land at Home Park was required when Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral took place earlier this month.
Windsor are optimistic they will play their first home fixture on October 15 against Cobham.
“Despite the fact we’ve played four games and not won one yet, we are without doubt building incredibly well,” said Emmett.
“Andy Symons has been absolutely fantastic from pre-season. His quality of coaching and his delivery of the sessions has been amazing, and the feedback from the boys has been really positive.
“I feel the squad is tighter than last year, we are playing a better brand of rugby, and we’ve got better systems in place. We have got that consistency with our coaching team too.
“The only thing we are in need of now are a couple of wins.
“This league we’ve been placed in is a real step up from last year’s. We played Hammersmith & Fulham the first game of our season and got welltrampled. Then, we lost to London Cornish 29-28 which was a brutal game because we were actually 28-7 up at one point.
“London Irish Wild Geese were just very well-drilled and a physically big team. When they came out on Saturday I was stunned at the size of their players. We have accrued just four points so far this season but I’m very happy with how things are going because of the way we are playing. I know a win isn’t far off because our game is developing and progressing really well.”
Emmett added: “I will say, it has been quite frustrating that we haven’t actually played any home games yet this season. Home Park has always struggled through periods of extreme weather and also during the funeral, there was a lot of stuff put down on the pitches and things like that.
“It’s annoying that we haven’t played any home matches because we are stronger on our own pitch than away. But, we will be playing a lot more home games towards the end of the season which will be good.”
Windsor are due to face Beaconsfield this weekend and Emmett acknowledges this is a crucial clash for his side.
“They’re bottom of the league, just below us, so it’s a massive opportunity to get five points and then enjoy a weekend off,” he said.
“I’m really optimistic because Andy has put some really good systems in place and the boys are loving the training sessions.
“Hopefully some big W’s will surface over the next couple of weeks and then we will start to climb the table like we deserve to.”