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Cinderford director of rugby Paul Morris says he is ‘blessed’ to have Michael Austin, with the scrum-half excelling since taking over the kicking duties.
An early season setback saw instrumental fly-half Reece Boughton suffer a long-term knee ligament injury, but Austin has stepped up and came into this weekend second in the National One points scoring charts.
“Michael’s a talented boy and we’re very blessed to have him,” said Morris. “He’s a big moment type player but also a very solid individual. We didn’t expect him to be goal kicking but he was the first to put his hand up when Reece went down.”
The southwest side gained promotion to the third tier in 2018 and this season is shaping up to be one of the tightest ever with Rams, Cambridge, Rosslyn Park, Sale and Cinderford all pushing for promotion.
Morris says: “I love it and have thoroughly enjoyed it since we’ve been back. There’s some great clubs in it and the rugby played is pretty good. I encourage anyone to come and watch it, it’s pretty spectacular and the games are so competitive. Even the six wins we’ve had this season, at times I’m looking at the opposition thinking wow they’re good.
“I get upset when teams are labelled a poor side, Esher and Hull aren’t poor outfits they are good sides at this level, they just aren’t getting the wins that they deserve.”
Cinderford won six of their opening eight games and Morris says it is no more than he expected.
“We’re pretty comfortable with our start to the season. We’re still hanging around the top five which we broke into last season. The two defeats have come against two good sides in Rosslyn Park and Cambridge and we’ve been competitive in both games. The rest of it we’ve done what we’ve expected to do, that’s not being arrogant we expect to be around where we are but we’re delighted to be, as there are so many pitfalls in this league.”
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