Pontypool
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Our culture is all about embracing
our mistakes and those initial errors
have very much dictated our current
success. We have great people steering
the club forward into the future, but it is
something you can never take your eye
off. You must always be one step ahead
and you can fall behind very quickly.”
This Season
“The mood is tremendous at the club
right now and many would point that to
the fact that we have been on a great run
this season, but it is what is underpinning
those results that matters. We appointed
Leighton Jones as our head coach in the
summer, taking his association with
the club to over twenty years, and he is
without doubt one of the brightest minds
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in Welsh club rugby. He has incredibly
high standards, but those standards come
with a will to work as hard as anybody
else and the team have bought into his
honest approach.
We have a great management in place
and a superb squad to match it. Everyone
is playing their part and it is great to see
the genuine team spirit that exists within
the squad.
Failing to achieve promotion to the
Principality Premiership last year at
Bargoed was one of the worst days of
my life, but if you could offer me the
opportunity to be in the Premiership with
what we had last season or stay in the
National Championship with our current
team, I would take the latter every day of
the week.”
Youth
“We are in somewhat of a unique
position in that we only have one senior
team. When we took over the club
in 2012, we inherited a coach, a team
manager and four players. Everything
else the club had historically developed
had been stripped away in the previous
years in Welsh club rugby’s deteriorating
climate. Participation numbers are down
and it is a very big concern for the future.
When we appointed Leighton as head
coach, he in particular recognised that we
need to go much further in supporting
tomorrow’s generation of rugby player
within the area. We met with a number
of local clubs throughout the summer
and it was interesting to learn that many
of them did not actually want us to re-