Appleyard unhappy with date clashes
STAFFORDSHIRE head coach Andy Appleyard believes the RFU are ‘stealing opportunities away from quality players’ due to the opening round of the County Championship being played on the same day as the Papa John’s final.
Divisions 2 and 3 of the county competition get underway on Saturday but due to yesterday’s Papa John’s semi-finals, which Staffordshire sides Leek and Stoke competed in, Appleyard, below, will be without both those side’s players after they progressed into next weekend’s Twickenham final.
Both Staffordshire and their opponents on Saturday, Cumbria, whose top domestic side Penrith reached the last four of the Papa John’s, were left in the dark this week as to whether they’d have their best possible players available for their tournament opener.
Appleyard says it’s had a detrimental impact on their preparation in the build up to the tournament and says dates need to be moved to avoid clashes like these in the future.
He told The Rugby Paper: “From a national perspective, the competition dates need looking at because we’ve gone into this week not knowing if we’ll have our players from Leek or Stoke available. That needs looking at by the RFU’s competitions department because you’re stealing opportunities away from quality players. The best teams in the county are most likely to get to the final of the Papa John’s, so it takes away your better players.
“We all want rugby to thrive and if you’re not lining up fixtures and competitions properly then you take away opportunity. Cumbria were in the same position because Leek played Penrith, so the winner of that hurts their counties chances.”
Last year’s finals day at Twickenham saw Kent pip Lancashire 39-37 in an enthralling final, Dorset & Wilts beat Durham 37-15 to hoist up the Division 2 title, while Oxfordshire saw off Essex 42-7 to win Division 3.
This season’s Division 2 comprises three pools of four teams with Cheshire, Cumbria, Northumberland and Staffordshire in Pool 1. Pool 2 includes Buckinghamshire,
Essex, Gloucester and Sussex, while pool 3 involves East Midlands, Eastern Counties, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire.
In Division 3 it’s three pools of three teams; pool 1 being Durham, North Midlands and Notts, Lincs & Derbys, pool 2 is Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Middlesex, while Berkshire, Devon and Dorset & Wilts are in pool 3.
Cheshire voluntarily moved down a division after losing all three of their outings last season therefore pool 1 in division 1 has just three teams involved (Lancashire, Somerset and Yorkshire), while the four in pool 2 remain Cornwall, Hampshire, reigning champions Kent and Surrey.
Former Macclesfield head coach and current general manager Appleyard has been balancing his time at Macc with being coach at Staffordshire club side Leek.
As he enters into his debut season in charge of Staffordshire, Appleyard says he’s been busy this season attempting to reconnect the county after previous campaigns where the team was based around its top two sides. He also hopes to regenerate interest in the competition across the county after failing to reach people’s radars in recent years.
He said: “Our primary aim this season is to reconnect the county because two teams in the past have shone and dominated the county team in Burton and Stoke. Looking further back it would be Longton and Litchfield, so the majority of players have come from those four clubs. We wanted to break the mould and reach out to all the clubs in Staffordshire, no matter what level they are at because you see diamonds everywhere; a level 7 or 8 club could have two really good players.
“We want to get excitement around the county campaign. It’s not really in the public eye, so if you’re not a rugby person that hasn’t been involved at county level you don’t really know much about it and we wanted to change that. I think we’ve done that with social media, connecting with more clubs for players and I’ve spent time connecting with the coaches to help identify certain players. Hopefully we can have a good campaign to move forward.”
Staffs will be captained by Burton second row John Kirwan and Appleyard is excited to see how his lock leads the side.
He added: “I did a couple sessions last year as a support coach in the county and I saw his growth throughout that. We thought he’d be the key person to lead the lads from the front. Chaz Bunting is our attack coach this year but is a big part of the playing squad as well and provides a quality link between the players and coaches. I’m excited to see how he manages that.”
Staffs face Cheshire on May 18 and Appleyard is looking forward to going up against some familiar faces from his time with Macclesfield in what he sees as the litmus test in their campaign, before they round off their pool stage at home to Northumberland.
Following their relegation in 2019, Macclesfield have spent five years outside of the National Leagues but will return to National Two North next season after winning Regional 1 North West last term.
“I know Cheshire are going to be strong because I know most of the lads through Macclesfield, who have done so well this year,” said Appleyard.
“I expect a lot of the players I coached in the past to be in that squad, they are all excellent players. Cheshire have stepped down from Division 1 and I guess the reasons for that are to compete a bit more. There are some great clubs in Cheshire and quality players across them, so they’ll be strong. I’m really excited for that game as I think that’ll be the tipping point in the division.”