HENRY Trinder plans on bringing attacking style of rugby which dominated his 172-game career with Gloucester to Championship Ampthill.
The talented centre was a key man for Gloucester over the course of 13 years, where he scored 46 tries and would have likely been capped by England if not for a series of bad injuries.
Now after a brief stint at French ProD2 club Vannes, the 32-year-old is about to take his first steps up the coaching ladder where he will take charge of the club's attack alongside his playing duties.
“I played under a lot of really good coaches at Gloucester, and I'd like to take a bit from each one,” he said.
“I was a big fan of Nigel Davies in particular. He was exactly the same as Ampthill coach Paul Turner in the fact that he wanted to play open rugby, he wanted front foot ball to play an exciting brand of rugby. Johan Ackerman was similar – he wanted to run the ball and really attack teams.
“Bryan Redpath was also very good and it's about finding a balance and taking the best out of all of them.
“How Gloucester wanted to play is how I want to coach Ampthill in terms of winning front foot ball, getting it in the backs' hands, and having some really dynamic forwards to carry and play at the same time.”
Having missed out on promotion to the Top 14 with Vannes after a semifinal defeat to Biarritz, Trinder was released due to the French second tier strict quota on non-French players. After pondering a return to the Premiership Trinder decided now was the perfect time to go into coaching. And he is confident he can help Ampthill be successful.
“I was thinking of the role in terms of transitioning from a player into a coach,” said Trinder. “I'm a competitor at the end of the day and I will always regret not winning the Premiership with Gloucester. Looking back, I wouldn't have minded picking up a few less injuries.
“In terms of my time there, the friends that I made, the memories that I made, I'll never forget it.”
On choosing Ampthill he added: “I believe they had a back player coach lined up but unfortunately, he couldn't make it so it all just fell into place with me and the club.
“Talking to (head coach) Paul Turner I was getting a good feel for the club in terms of how they wanted to play and their general direction of travel. Ampthill ticked all my boxes.
“There's some very experienced coaches at the club including Mouritz Botha who I played with at England Saxons. He's got a good rugby pedigree, and Paul has a tremendous knowledge of rugby from the last 20-30 years.
“I hope I can bring my experience and game understanding into the group. I'd like to give a bit more detail on some simple things which can go a long way in terms of bringing a team together and playing a simple and effective structure which doesn't shackle you.
“We aren't necessarily going to kick, we aren't necessarily going to run everything – we are going to have a balance of how we run and play the game.”
The Championship will have a different feel this season with the Premiership set to be ring-fenced until 2024, meaning no automatic promotion from the Championship. Trinder has mixed feelings about it.
He said: “Ampthill have a vision of succeeding and definitely finishing in the top four. There's obviously a lot of work to be done before that but when you've got a backer who is willing to say things like that then it's very motivating in terms of a player coach like me coming in and wanting to succeed.
“With ring fencing you could maybe lose that edge. If we win the Championship, we remain in the Championship, but I think we'll keep driving forward the playing squad to facilitate the success.”
STEFFAN THOMAS
