Chinnor go for quality .. and quantity
Ambitious Chinnor have plundered the high-end recruitment market and player-coach Richard Thorpe is demanding a fast start to underpin his side’s promotion push.
Canadian international Thorpe, who quit full-time rugby with London Welsh at the end of last season but will continue to don the boots, is joined at Kingsey Road by a host of new players with Premiership or Championship experience.
Amongst the eye-catching arrivals are former Munster, Newcastle and Ealing utility back Danny Barnes, ex-Doncaster centre Bevon Armitage and former Jersey and Yorkshire Carnegie lock Nathan Hannay, while prop Jay Tyack, fly-half Bertie Hopkin and another back three utility man, Kieran Goss, all join from Cornish Pirates.
Thorpe told The Rugby Paper: “Danny Barnes has impressed in pre-season and brings a wealth of experience and a lot of onfield leadership, as does Bevon Armitage.
“Bevon’s been around the professional game for a long time, which the players around him are lapping up, and it’s great to have characters like them to call upon.
“They’ve been attracted by Chinnor’s ambition and set-up and we’ve got a fantastic group of people who want to be part of something we’re building.”
Former Leicester and London Irish flanker Thorpe added: “We’ve recruited well and feel we have a very good side. We’re looking to be highly competitive and we’re focusing heavily on the beginning part of our season.
“Chinnor had a poor start last season before finishing sixth, so we’re looking to our first four matches against London Irish Wild Geese, Henley, Redruth and Barnstaple and we’ll see where we are at the end of that.
“We don’t want to be playing catch-up like we did last season so we’ll do everything to make sure we’re in the promotion shake-up. We’ll set out a game plan and go out to win every week in order to achieve our goals.”
Whilst Bishop’s Stortford and Taunton are expected to challenge, last season’s Cornish shock troops Redruth aim to build on last season’s fourth place.
With Exeter Chiefs academy coach Marek Churcher taking the helm as head coach following Steve Larkins’ decision to step down for family reasons, Redruth will tap into the rich seam of talent within South-west rugby.
Churcher, who coached Redruth’s backs last season, told TRP: “We had scrum-half Jack Maunder and prop Billy Keast on loan from Chiefs last season and it really helped those guys progress, so we’ll look to continue that.
“We’re working really closely with Exeter, Cornish Pirates and Plymouth now and building some really solid foundations in the South-west. It’s almost like a virtuous circle with clubs at four different levels in the system. “Finishing fourth last season was brilliant and it surprised us really, but we won a lot of games on the road and we’ve got experienced people like Kyle Marriott, Chris Fuca and Lewis Vinnicombe to lead those youngsters.”
Churcher added: “Bishop’s Stortford will be a threat, as will Taunton, but if we could finish fourth again it would be brilliant. Anything above that would be a bonus but we’re building a good squad here.”