Law rediscovers a passion for playing
AFTER coming out of retirement last season, Darlington Mowden Park director of rugby Garry Law is loving playing rugby again.
Law’s side finished 12th in National 1, and while the 37-year-old has mixed emotions around their upand-down campaign, he relished putting on the boots again after his time out.
Playmaker Law announced his retirement three years ago after playing more than 100 games for the club but, due to a lack of funding because of Covid-19, he returned to the line-up and made 16 appearances at fly-half and centre, scoring 56 points
Law told The Rugby Paper: “It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster this season. We’ve had some good wins, at home mainly, but we’ve had some poor performances mixed in there as well. A mixed bag if I’m honest and inconsistency has cost us.
“On a personal level, I’m enjoying it so much more after having that break. However long that goes on I’m not sure as I’m turning 38 next season, so we’ll see.
“I’ve been head coach for around seven years now, I’ve now taken on more of the director of rugby stuff as well. Not a lot has changed as I’m still trying to get the best from the squad. We’ve got potential to get to the next level, but we want to do it sensibly. We don’t have a money man, it’s all selfsufficient.”
The standout moment in DMP’s season according to
Law is the 26-7 home win over Cinderford back in December where they produced a complete performance in difficult conditions.
Law said: “It’s not so much the score line, it’s more the manner of the performance that impressed me so much. It was wet, windy, and stereotypically that’s not our conditions for DMP rugby. We stuck to our game plan for 80 minutes and performed it perfectly and shut them out.”
DMP possess a trio of talented players in scrumhalf Euan McKirdy, who has scored 11 tries this season, Warren Seals who finished eighth in the points scoring charts with 152 and player of the season second row
Joe Craggs, right.
Law said: “Euan’s great, I pigeonhole him as like a South African nine.
He’s like a third flanker, he does a lot of the contact work getting turnovers and making sniping breaks down the rucks. “Warren’s been with us for seven years barring one season when he went to Leeds. He’s one of the most consistent kickers in the league. Unfortunately, he picked up a big injury in February and has been out since then otherwise he’d be a lot higher in that table.
“Joe Craggs is a consistent player who picked up three awards at the end of the season; players’ player of the year, coaches’ player of the year and supporters’ player of the year, so he must be doing something right. If we could have 15 Joe Craggs we’d be in a
good place.”