The heroics of George Ford and Owen Farrell at the Rugby World Cup have been a potent reminder to all that sometimes the boot is mightier than the sword and in National Two West, Luke Cozens embodies that fundamental rugby truth to a tee.
The fly-half of Clifton has used his immaculate left foot to fire the club through a series of nerve-shredding close matches, all the way to second place in the league.
Though he’s a 36-yearold veteran of the sport, Cozens is the division’s second highest point scorer, with 59 to his name-not one of which has come from a try.
For Cozens, kicking is almost second nature, yet his eye-popping numbers still come as a bit of surprise.
He told The Rugby Paper: “When the bigger kicks come, it’s easy to get switched onto it. The more you think about it, you can kick yourself out of the rhythm.
“Weirdly enough, I had to buy a new pair of boots and since I bought them, I haven’t missed. Maybe there’s something to that.
“I started the season slow because I barely did pre-season. To be honest, I don’t actually practice that much now. I’ve not got time.”
The main reason that Cozens has to lean on muscle memory rather than hours on the practice field is that these days, he’s mixing his onpitch duties with the offfield responsibilities of a head coach.
The balance can be a hard one to strike but it’s not without its upsides.
Cozens said: “Sometimes I can go too hard because I want to see certain things and I can’t necessarily do everything I’m coaching any more.
“As player-coach, you want to try and play it right for the boys. When you play badly, it’s hard to then stand there and tell other people to review things.
“But because I play flyhalf, I play like a coach anyway. I’ve made decisions my whole career. It’s an advantage to us in that sense.”
At the start of the season, Cozens was actually edging towards retiring and focusing all his energies on leading the team from the sideline.
Instead, he was forced back into a number-10 shirt by a lack of experience in the squad. A major focus this year has been rectifying that.
He said: “This year we’re trying to pick more people so we get a bigger, better squad. I think we’ve used over 40 players in the first team already.
“In the last two seasons, we may have just played the mainstay players every week and after Christmas we burned out.”
The long-term aim is to create a team that can remain competitive well into a gruelling season, although the short term results are nothing to sniff at either.
Cozens said: “We’ve got enough quality that if the process is right, the results will come.
“Rather than put emphasis on winning above all else, it’s about encouraging the young lads to have a go and not worry.”
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