OC Coventry Colts - All set for New Season’s Challenges!

Our very own ‘Coventry Colts’ are back in action after a short Summer break.  In August a Colts rugby camp took place at the Butts Park Arena in which Head Coach Richard Protherough and several of the Coventry 1st XV squad took the lads through their paces. 

Above shows Number 8 Jordan Diston about to pass the ball before just before Coventry player, Ricky Whitehall confronts him with a tackle shield.

Our Colts will be trying to exceed last season’s successes in which they played 27, won 16, drew 2 and lost 9.  Last year they got through to the semi-final of the National Colts Plate only losing by a pint to Newbury despite having a very much younger side.  The season’s top try scorer was Carl Jeffs and top points scorer was Lee Chapman, but somehow every regular player got on the score sheet at some point in the season.  This year, the lads are that bit taller and heavier, and they are ready for some bigger and tougher challenges.  We look forward to watching them take on the likes of Moseley, Bedford, Nuneaton, Rugby Lions and Kenilworth, and hopefully they will have another exciting cup run.  As last year we are planning for selected Colts matches to take place as curtain raisers for the Coventry 1st XV home games.

The squad sadly says goodbye to four or five players who have become too old for Colts rugby, notably number 8 Fraser Tait, prop Chris Busby, hooker Laurence Parker and flanker Tony Porter.  However the squad retains all of the players who as Old Coventrians Under 17XV won through to the semi-final of the RFU National Under 17s tournament, and there are several new recruits who have quickly settled in.  Last year three or four Coventry Colts were given run outs in the Coventry Development XV and this year we can expect that even more will be given an opportunity to play in the Monday evening Development XV Matches.

Last week the season got off to a great start with a resounding 31-10 win over Birmingham and Solihull Colts.  Tries came from Jordan Diston, Luke Lowe, Dominic Sheehan, Jonnie Openshaw and new centre Ryan O’Neill and conversions from Luke Lowe and Mattie Greenbank(2).  Our next big colts match is a visit to Moseley on 20th September and we meet Nuneaton in the National Colts Cup at home on 28th September.

The Coventry Colts squad is still keen to recruit more players of Colts age who have ambitions to play top level rugby, especially in the forwards.  New players are always welcome to come along and join an OC Coventry training session at OC’s Tile Hill Lane ground on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7pm.  Alternatively they can phone Mike Owen on 07855 424097 or Bill Whetstone on 07966 064684 for more information.