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Aussies at Heathfield!
Philip Bell6 Sep - 09:28
Mixed feelings about today's game in Brighton
Today the Red Roses face Australia in their final pool game in the Women’s Rugby World Cup (RWC) – and Heathfield have been closely involved this week as the Aussies have been training at Cross In Hand.
We have not been able to talk about this so as to allow them to prepare for the game without hordes of English watchers. Those of us who have been facilitating the Aussie visit have really enjoyed meeting a great bunch of people. While we want (and expect) England to win we have enormous respect for the Aussies and wish them well as they will probably still reach the quarter-finals.
The club has been preparing for this week over the last year in two specific areas – clubhouse and pitch.
The clubhouse extension has been steadily progressing and, just in time, we were able to open one of the new changing rooms for the Aussies to use. We will be able to use this new changing room from now on (see picture) – and the rest of the extension will gradually come into use in the coming months.
The Wilson-Rhodes pitch has benefited from extra funding from the RWC. As a result a professional pitch company employed by the RWC recently gave the Wilson-Rhodes surface a score of 74% compared to perfection. Their report included three main elements Turf Quality, Physical Quality and Playing Quality – the latter received a 100% rating.
While our teams normally enjoy playing in front of the clubhouse, Wilson-Rhodes is now a far better playing surface which will encourage a higher standard of rugby. We will need to look after it and not hammer some areas in training so that all of our teams can benefit from this legacy in the longer term.
The World Cup and hopefully the Red Roses continued success should attract more people to the game and we are well placed to exploit this.
Two of the Ladies coaches were able to attend a Red Roses training session in Brighton this week. Later this month the Ladies first team start their campaign in Championship 2 – the third level nationally – which is going to be a huge challenge. As the highest-ranked Ladies team in Sussex we have been able to attract more good players to the squad but we still want to encourage people of any standard, age or experience to join.
Training every Tuesday and Thursday 7.00pm at Cross In Hand – everyone welcome.
We have not been able to talk about this so as to allow them to prepare for the game without hordes of English watchers. Those of us who have been facilitating the Aussie visit have really enjoyed meeting a great bunch of people. While we want (and expect) England to win we have enormous respect for the Aussies and wish them well as they will probably still reach the quarter-finals.
The club has been preparing for this week over the last year in two specific areas – clubhouse and pitch.
The clubhouse extension has been steadily progressing and, just in time, we were able to open one of the new changing rooms for the Aussies to use. We will be able to use this new changing room from now on (see picture) – and the rest of the extension will gradually come into use in the coming months.
The Wilson-Rhodes pitch has benefited from extra funding from the RWC. As a result a professional pitch company employed by the RWC recently gave the Wilson-Rhodes surface a score of 74% compared to perfection. Their report included three main elements Turf Quality, Physical Quality and Playing Quality – the latter received a 100% rating.
While our teams normally enjoy playing in front of the clubhouse, Wilson-Rhodes is now a far better playing surface which will encourage a higher standard of rugby. We will need to look after it and not hammer some areas in training so that all of our teams can benefit from this legacy in the longer term.
The World Cup and hopefully the Red Roses continued success should attract more people to the game and we are well placed to exploit this.
Two of the Ladies coaches were able to attend a Red Roses training session in Brighton this week. Later this month the Ladies first team start their campaign in Championship 2 – the third level nationally – which is going to be a huge challenge. As the highest-ranked Ladies team in Sussex we have been able to attract more good players to the squad but we still want to encourage people of any standard, age or experience to join.
Training every Tuesday and Thursday 7.00pm at Cross In Hand – everyone welcome.
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