Saints Wheelchair Rugby head coach Jamie Higgins shared his pride as an inexperienced development squad shone in a recent trio of matches.
The recently-founded ‘Wanderers’ side travelled to Wymondham in the GBWR Midlands Development League, where they took on hosts Norfolk Knights, Coventry and Leicester Tigers.
The opportunity was taken to blood some new players alongside a couple of Saints’ more experienced Premiership players.
After defeating Norfolk 16-13, the Wanderers fell to a pair of single-try defeats as Coventry (16-15) and Tigers (15-14) edged some tight encounters.
“I’m really proud of how the new players got stuck in,” said Higgins. “They mixed well with a couple of our Premiership players and didn’t look lost or out of place on the court.
“They found their own vibe and that’s what I wanted. I wanted to see them gel on the court and benefit from the experience moving forward.”
Jamie Higgins, Saints Wheelchair Rugby coach
The victory over Norfolk was particularly sweet for the Wanderers having lost against them on the first weekend of the season.
Defeats to Coventry and Tigers saw Wanderers let leads slip but Higgins took plenty from the games, even though they agonisingly missed out on a clean sweep of wins on the road.
“Both games featured late tries so it could’ve been very different,” Higgins explained. “Ultimately a couple of errors were costly but we were up against strong teams who have been together as teams longer than we have.”
Across the matches, Wanderers fielded 12 players, as Saints Wheelchair Rugby continues to grow ahead of the return of WR5s tournament in Aylesbury on the weekend of August 19 and 20.
“We’re training really hard at the minute,” said Higgins. “We’ve got a few five-hour training sessions booked in over the coming weeks to up the team’s fitness levels and to work on skills.
“Saints are currently sitting second in the Premiership and Wanderers are currently third in League 2. With it being only their first year that is encouraging for those new players.”
Jamie Higgins, Saints Wheelchair Rugby coach
“Having a few experienced players there to help them develop has created a positive outcome so it's just about working both teams together. They're all training together and getting the same input so new players are getting the same experience as senior players. We’re just stretching everyone.
“That experience from the Premiership players, or more experienced players, just passes down to the new players so they’re probably growing at a faster rate than our experienced players did, because the knowledge base is there.
“They're experiencing or getting experience of our five years of knowledge now, whereas when we first started out, we didn’t have that knowledge.”
