Bath & Wiltshire Romans - Start to the season!

[Bath Wiltshire Romans RLFC]

Leafy Lane Ltd who manage Leafy Lane playing fields in Corsham (near Bath) had been dreaming about starting a rugby league team for over two years now. Stevenne Bray longstanding committee member was really impressed with the Rugby League World Cup match at Bristol in 2013 and thought it would be great if they could add the sport to the current offering of Cricket and Football already established.

 

The dream began to become a reality when a small management group was formed in January 2015 with the aim of entering a team in the West of England league which kicked off in May 2015 to compete against Bristol Sonics, Cheltenham Phoenix, Swindon St George and Somerset Vikings. By a fortunate chance meeting Tom Howley (British Army Rugby League Captain & Combined Services International) was recruited as player-coach. In recent weeks Rob Cryer (Bath University Rugby League Coach) has been assisting with coaching duties.

 

The action on the pitch commenced with a pre-season friendly against Bath University at their ground which saw the Romans go down 32-18 meeting the university side at the end of a successful season that included a number of student internationals. The game took place on Saturday 18^th April 2015 after only a handful of training sessions together. However, Tom Howley and Steve Flintoft proved to be difficult to stop for the students and both scored a try a piece. David O’Callaghan scored a typical wingers try and Jonny Green (ex-Wigan Academy player) got a consolation score towards the end of the game.

 

The Romans had to wait until Saturday 9^th May for their first competitive fixture which was at home against local rivals Swindon St. George, with brand new rugby posts being installed at the facility in the week leading upto the game. Apart from a purple patch at the start of the second-half when St George pulled the score back to 24 points to 30, with two converted tries in quick succession, Romans generally controlled the game winning 58-24. Jay Patterson bagged a hat trick on his Rugby League debut having being recruited from Trowbridge Rugby Union in a powerful strong running performance. Jay was described by Player-Coach Tom Howley as “our local Jonah Lomu”. Combined Services International Mike Harrison playing at centre took the Man of the Match Award and also took on the kicking duties for the day.

 

On Saturday 16^th May the Romans took on Cheltenham Phoenix in their first competitive away fixture and came away with an impressive 50-18 victory, after leading 28-0 at half-time. The Romans scored a sensational 10 tries in their route to victory but only managed 5 conversions. Paul Riley impressed on his debut for the club at stand-off, while Mike Roberts was rewarded for some good forward play with the coaches man of the match.

 

Mike Harrison (Combined Services International) has been one of the stand out players from the early season form which has seen the Romans go top of the West of England Premier League and Tom Plance had been a good find having signed from Bath University but the latter has now unfortunately returned home for the summer. A number of players have now signed from Trowbridge RFU after Jay Patterson’s impressive debut performance. There has also been some interest from Frome with Mike Rutt and Matt Warnock signing from Frome RFC. The club currently sit joint top of the West of England division table and will be going head to head with rivals Bristol Sonics over the next few weeks.

 

The club is still keen to recruit players (all ages 16+ & all abilities), sponsors and volunteers, notably a website manager. The debut season kit is similar colours to Bath Rugby and gratefully sponsored by Samwells of Bath. Chris Chatten, club official, said “we are keen to continue to recruit players from across the Wiltshire & Bath area giving them an opportunity to experience the greatest game of Rugby League”.

 

You can keep upto speed with the squads progress and fixtures via the RFL regional website, http://www.southwestrugbyleague.com/

 

The club also have a friendly game on Tuesday evening against the army’s Royal Signals kicking off at 6.30pm Leafy Lane, Corsham. If you want to give rugby league a try over the summer this would be the ideal opportunity to give it a go, players to meet at 6pm. Alternatively, pop along to watch the game and take in some live rugby league action.

 

The club can be contacted by:

Facebook: Bath & Wiltshire Romans RLFC - https://www.facebook.com/romansRLFC

Twitter:          @RomansRLFC

Email:              romansrlfc@gmail.com

[cookey]

Would be a lovely part of the world for someone to tour to and help develope the game.

[Bath Wiltshire Romans RLFC]

Get in touch if you know anyone who would like a tour game and we will see what we can do?

 

Thanks,

 

Chris