bargoed
Bargoed
B
argoed RFC has swept aside all challengers
this season, winning their opening 17 matches
in the SWALEC Championship. Rugby Club
Magazine caught up with their Chairman Neil
Carter to find out more.
He told us, “Personally, I’ve been involved with the club since
I was 18. It’s a great family club which plays an important
role in the local community. Everybody here gets involved
and I’m proud to be a part of it.
We’re delighted with how the season has gone so far. It has
surpassed all our expectations to be honest; we thought we
had a reasonable squad with a good chance of making the
top 4 but it has gone a hell of a lot better than we thought.
The players have gelled together. Believe it or not we had
a poor pre-season but the players have come together since
and are enjoying their rugby.
Hopefully we’ll be able to secure the Championship. That’s
the only title we haven’t won up to this level. We’ve won
every title as we’ve come through the leagues and that
would be a good accolade for all our coaches and players. It’s
looking good at the moment; we’ve got a few tough games
ahead but as long as they keep performing as they have been
then it’s a realistic target for us.
It’s a good balance that we’ve got in the side at the moment
between some young players and a few with a bit more
experience. You’ve got to have that balance, particularly at
this level, between blooding young players and having a few
wiser heads to help them along.
Youth rugby is a big part of what we do. We’ve got a good
strong junior section here running from U6s all the way up
to U16s and then a youth side after that. We appreciate that
not all the youth players will come through and make it into
the first team but by running a second side as well we hope
as many as possible will be able to stay involved in the club.
Our coaches deal directly with the youth set up so that they
have a good idea when the young players are ready to make
the step up. We feel I a smooth transition is about having
good communication right through the club.
One of our biggest challenges is keeping hold of our young
players. When they are ready we are happy for them to make
the step up but sometimes teams want to take them before
we feel they are ready. Given another year they would be
ready to make the step up so working to ensure that they go
at the right time is a big challenge which we face all the time.
Image courtesy of Michelle Dare
Other than that our biggest test is to be constantly improving
both on and off the field. We’re looking to make some
improvements to the ground and that will be the transition over
the next couple of years to gain an A-license. Over the coming
years I hope that we can continue what we’re doing. We’re not
a big town club; we want to keep developing youngsters so that
they can reach their full potential and as long as we’re doing that
we’ll be happy.”
Bargoed RFC is no doubt a very successful club with a superb
Committee in place. It is apparent that they have a tremendous
focus and togetherness about them and this is in no small way
down to the contributions of their team manager Brett Wakefield
and coaches like Steve Barber, Dai Lynch and Gareth Genter.
Rugby Club Magazine would like to wish them the best of luck for
the rest of the season.
www.pitchero.com/clubs/bargoed- Twitter : @Bargoedrfc
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