Hammond hopes extra training can level playing field
NOTTINGHAM will move to a three-day training week for the 2022/23 campaign after finishing secondfrom-bottom in the Championship this season.
It was a tough reintroduction to life in English rugby’s second tier for former player Craig Hammond, who in his first season back as head coach inherited a part-time squad put together on one of the smallest budgets in the league.
The Green & Whites will remain part-time but Hammond hopes the extra day’s training will allow them to compete on a more even keel.
“This year we were Tuesday and Thursday night and a bit of gym in the morning, that’s the model we had when I walked in, and we weren’t competing,” said the New Zealander, who re-joined the club last summer after a nine-year spell coaching in Hong Kong.
“You can’t do it when you are coming up against five or six full-time clubs. We’ve been found out massively on the conditioning side of it, on the playing side and the analysis side.
“It’s been a tough learning curve for myself but the club is supportive of us going three nights a week and investing a bit more in the squad to give us a bit more firepower.
“Overall, we were a very young squad, and we’ll hopefully add a bit more experience that’ll add some value to us, while continuing to develop a few more guys (through the link with Leicester).
“Pretty much the whole squad wants to be here so if guys want to stay, we must be doing something right. Touch wood, we’ll be in a better position.”
Hammond, right, also revealed that Nottingham’s coaching group will remain intact for next season, and that includes former Leeds boss Diccon Edwards who ended his self-imposed exile from Championship rugby by helping Nottingham out last season.
It is nearly 10 years since Edwards resigned from his position at Leeds and the former RFU academy coach had been out of rugby ever since, asides from some work with Leicester’s junior academy.
Edwards brings with him extensive elite sport experience from his time at UK Sport and the English Institute of Sport and was recently appointed as performance director of GB Wheelchair Basketball.
A friend of Nottingham COO, Steve Smith, 49-yearold Edwards will continue to work with the club as a part-time consultant
“He’s been awesome for us. He challenges us on the mental side of the game – the whys and wants of what we are doing. It’s great for us that he wants to be involved again next year,” said Hammond.
Another positive from the 2021/22 campaign was the collaborative partnership with Leicester that resulted in player and coach exchanges between the clubs.
It is a model that has also benefitted Bedford, through their links with Northampton, while London Scottish and Harlequins recently announced a partnership agreement. Hammond believes it is the sensible approach for Championship clubs to take, especially those with limited budgets, with Diccon Edwards’ son, Sam, proving to be one of the success stories.
“It’s definitely going to go that way, it is good for the game and it is good for the young guys to play and cut their teeth in the Championship. Holding a (tackle) bag ain’t going to develop you,” insisted Hammond, who played over 300 games for the Green & Whites.
“We had anywhere from three to six academy players come in and help us out. It’s been a good challenge for them because being an 18/19-year-old in the Championship isn’t easy but some of those guys have kicked on massively this season.
“Archie Vanes, the hooker, is a classic one, he has just got better and better. He sat behind Jake Farnworth at first but Jake then got posted down to
London for work and Archie started week in week out and grew up pretty quick.
“Sam Edwards, the
scrumhalf, is another. He came to us very young having missed out on a season because of Covid and played his first senior game with us, By the end of the season, he’d played England 20s and Prem Cup for Leicester. So there’s some real good success stories in there.
“Some guys have found it tough but the good news is they want to improve and because we have a really good link with Leicester they see coming on loan to us as a positive route to ideally being a Premiership rugby player.
“If we hadn’t have had those three to six players, we’d have had to lean on university guys a lot more and those guys aren’t yet of the calibre to play Championship rugby; they’d get absolutely dominated physically.
“It’s worked really well for us, and I think it’s great for Tigers to be able to get the guys some meaningful game time.”
One player Hammond is hoping to see more of next season is Lewis Chessum, brother of new England sensation, Ollie.
“He broke his ankle at Tigers and was out for about six months but he got back into it towards the end of the season and played a couple of games for us. He’s 6’8/6’9 and something like 120kgs and he’s only just turned 19,” Hammond said. “We struggled in that department, in the second row, and having guys like that drop in is good. I’m sure we’ll get him a bit more next year.
“These guys train week in week out with England players and full-time professional players and when they drop in with us their attitude is right because they want to improve and play rugby, so it’s easy to coach.”
With Nottingham being part-time, Hammond is able to spend a day or two a week as a transition coach with Leicester as part of the arrangement.
And some of Nottingham’s more established players like Josh Poullet, who has over a century of appearances to his name, have been able to experience life at the top-level by playing in the odd Premiership Cup game.
“Leicester are really keen to help develop us because if we have a better product and we are playing better higher up the Championship and their players are coming to us, it’s better for them as well,” said Hammond. “This type of arrangement can only be positive for the game and English rugby in the long run.”