Osborne relishing task of making Mose great again
NEW Birmingham Moseley head coach Collin Osborne says work-rate and passion are non-negotiables as he begins the task of steering the club away from relegation trouble.
Osborne lost his position as skills coach at Harlequins over the summer – a victim of the reshuffle that saw former England defence guru Paul Gustard take over.
However, after nearly 25 years at the Stoop in which he helped forge careers of England stars like Chris Robshaw, Joe Marler and Mike Brown through his work with the Quins academy and first team, he is ready for a new challenge at a club he once played for. Osborne told The Rugby
Paper: “Of course it was disappointing to leave Harlequins. It was a big part of my life for the best part of 25 years but one understands this is professional sport; there’s always renewal and reorganisation and I was part of that cycle.
“I took a bit of a breather and then Moseley got in touch. They thought there might be some mileage in getting me on board and whilst there are some good people at the club already, they just felt they needed more direction on the coaching side.”
While Osborne’s first match in charge produced an encouraging 31-22 win over Sale, he knows there is much more work to do before the club stabilises its place in National One and can mount a realistic bid for promotion back to the Championship.
He said: “When I got involved they’d played eight and lost seven so that was clearly not good enough. It was nice to get the win against Sale but the most important thing for me was the reaction in terms of attitude and work ethic, which are non-negotiables.
“I don’t know the financial implications of bringing in new players because there’s a strict budget we must adhere to, so my view from what I’ve seen of the boys is there are things we can improve and they’re good enough to compete in this league.
“They’ve lost games to teams way higher in the league by a gnat’s whisker so we’ll look to get good buy-in and try to get the club up the table.” After being schooled in Birmingham, Osborne played centre for Moseley during one of the club’s most successful eras. He added: “I played here for five years between 1978 and 1983 and in that time we shared the John Player Cup with Gloucester.
“When I was at school I used to go and watch Moseley and they were always the big club in the area, so I was lucky to get the opportunity back then.
“I lot of people have worked hard to get Moseley back on their feet after they were in intensive care during the Noughties. But there’s a semblance of balance here now, the support is strong and I want to help this club to improve its status again.”