Saints Wheelchair Rugby will benefit from the experience of their opening round of WR5s action according to head coach Jamie Higgins, after recording a mixed bag of results on the south coast.
A long trip to Plymouth awaited the squad along with an 11.15am first match time at the Life Centre on Sunday (18 May), with three further fixtures following across the day.
Wins were secured over North East Barbarians and Solent Sharks, while the contests with Leicester Tigers and Help for Heroes went the way of their opponents.
“There was a lot we could take from the day,” said Higgins. “We came out of it in third position, which is where we finished last season. It is only weekend one, we just need to work a bit harder going into weekends two and three and try write our own destiny to try and push into a higher finishing position.
“Going back into weekends two and three, we will have a stronger squad strength as some of our players that missed out last weekend are coming back, and will be available for selection.
“We had two of our junior players, Kaitlyn Kaminski and Abraham Johnson, involved and they are only going to benefit from this experience.
“They have only been at the Club from the start of this year; to be five months in and be playing at the top level is a really good achievement.“
Jamie Higgins, Saints Wheelchair Rugby Head Coach
The day started with a 22-19 loss to Help for Heroes. Higgins said: “It was a good close game, we lost by three points. It was a strong game that could’ve gone either way. H4H applied pressure compared to previous seasons and maybe a little bit of inexperience played its part for us. H4H are a team of more experienced players and that shone through.”
Saints bounced back with a 22-20 victory over Northeast Barbarians. Higgins said: “We always have a good game against the Barbarians. It was competitive on the court, but once we come off it’s all good fun and friendly. It was one of those games you like to play in. You know you are going to be tested, both teams pushing and wanting the win. But no matter what happens, both teams come off smiling, having enjoyed the game and we managed to get the win in that one.”
Then came the East Midlands derby, with Leicester Tigers claiming the local bragging rights with a 26-11 win. Higgins said: “It’s always a big game and the expectation is always on them to do well. So we had to dig in and fight. They excelled and took a good early lead, our guys maybe just forced the game a little bit too hard rather than relying on their capabilities and the tactics that we planned. By half-time that lead was unrecoverable so we used the second half of that game to make sure that everyone got more court time, more experience playing at a higher level against the top team at the moment.”
Finally, before the long journey home, Saints signed off with a single-point success, as they edged Solent Sharks 20-19. Higgins said: “It was a really good enjoyable game that could’ve gone either way. We finished the first half two points clear, but then gave three turnovers away as we came into the second half.
“We had to manage it, it was point for point all the way through the second half, then we managed to call our coach’s time out with less than 40 seconds on the clock, allowing us to manage the ball in the front court for around 30 to 40 seconds and secure the one-point win.”
There was some individual achievements to celebrate as Rhys Walden (1.0) and Gary Callier (4.0) were voted best-in-class by their opponents on the day.
