NATIONAL 1
Richie Williams is hoping his Cambridge side ‘can reach their full potential' this season as they embark on a quest to secure the National 1 title.
After a slow start to last season, the Blood & Sand finished fourth but having made some shrewd signings in the summer there's a great sense of optimism around Grantchester Road going into Saturday's season opener at home to Plymouth Albion.
Squad depth was an issue for Cambridge last time round but with an abundance of new signings including props Seb Brownhill from Bishop's Stortford and Matt Collins from Blackheath, Williams is pleased with how his squad is shaping up.
“What we identified at the back end of last season is that we need a bit more strength in depth in certain positions,” he said. “We had 20 strong players last season but we're quite conscious we left ourselves exposed in some positions, so we've rectified that this season by bringing in Seb and Matt, whose Championship and National 1 experience will make a big difference to our forward pack.
“One of the advantages we've got is that Cambridge is a pretty nice place for players to move to. A lot of the new players have managed to get jobs with some of our corporate partners at the club so they've settled in and integrated well.
“There's a nice age profile at the moment so there's a lot of new players who are relatively young and then we've got the spine of our team who are late 20s early 30s, so it's a really diverse group we're working with. We're fortunate everyone gets on away from rugby and the players and coaches like spending time with each other.”
Cambridge were hampered by losing their opening three games last season and Williams is hoping to put that right this time round.
“I'm really happy and all the signs are encouraging going into September and the big focus for us is to start the season better than last year as we were always playing catch up to the teams above us,” he added.
“For us, it's being aware of the threats Plymouth pose but equally for us we're pretty confident if we can play to our capacity then I'm hopeful we can start the season with a win and pick up five points.”
Cambridge's fourth place finish last year was the highest they've ever finished in the National League but Williams stresses that if they fail to finish any higher the season, the campaign will be deemed as a failure.
“We want to finish higher than the fourth place we finished last season,” he told. “Anything less than that will be an unsuccessful season with the squad and coaching team we've got.
“We want to reach our potential this season but we're fully aware of the other teams in the leagues; the Rosslyn Parks, the Sales, Cinderford, Rams… there's a lot of good teams in the league. But we're just concentrating on what we were successful in last season. We feel we've developed a strong identity as a group and the players know what works well for us and are ready to show what we can do next weekend.”
Last year's runners up Sale FC will be looking for vengeance and go one step further and achieve promotion to the Championship.
Sale were last season's top points scorers with a potent attack that scored 812 points in just 28 games but Jonathan Keep's side missed out on the title by just five points on the last day of the season.
Keep hopes the addition of England Sevens centre Oskar Hirskyji-Douglas from Bedford Blues – named in the Championship team of the season – will inspire them to the title this time round.
Meanwhile, Kieran Power's Rosslyn Park will likely push for the title again having finished third last season and hope to achieve promotion to the Championship for the first time since 1987.
Park have beefed up their pack by drafting in experienced Championship players with the likes of Freddie Hosking, from Richmond, Matt Bolwell, from Cornish Pirates, Oli Robinson, from Hartpury, and Alex Humphrey, from Jersey Reds, all arriving at The Rock.
In the backs division, Championship experience has also been added with Matt Gordon and Charlie Walker having joined from Ealing Trailfinders, while Sam Aspald-Robinson has moved to the capital from Coventry.
Newly-promoted Esher will be another one to look out for in National 1, currently under the guidance of their director of rugby, former England international Peter Winterbottom.
The Surrey club kick off their campaign with backto-back daunting encounters against two sides with title aspirations in Rams and Rosslyn Park, which will likely be a marker as to where Winterbottom's side are at.
