Young Gun: Freddie Gabbitas – Blackheath fly-half
The 22-year-old has won three man-of-the-match awards in the first eight games of the season as well as scoring 93 points.
Two years ago Gabbitas’ career took a tumble as he was dropped from the Bath academy and then suffered a knee injury that lost him most of the 2013-14 season.
He made his return with Exeter University last year and he is now looking to kick on with Club in men’s rugby.
“If I’m honest getting injured didn’t really impact on my career as Bath dropped a few of their scholars from their academy at the end of the 2013 season,” he told The Rugby Paper.
“The only thing it impacted was being selected for England Students as I was hoping to get picked in my last year at Bath University. But luckily I managed to get capped last season against Portugal when I was at Exeter.
“Bath had some good fly-halves there so I’m not bitter but it would be nice to prove a people wrong by having a shot at professional rugby in the future.
“Hopefully it can be with Blackheath if we get promoted. It’s very early in the season to be talking about promotion but I think we have the squad to do it.”
Working as a rugby coach at Sevenoaks School during the week, the former Millfield student is in a very good place.
Because of his studies and his injury, Gabbitas is only in his second year of senior rugby but he is enjoying the sport again and that’s all that matters.
He said: “Playing in the BUCS League with Exeter was really good last year even if we’d have liked to go further than the semis. I also played a few games for Taunton in National Two which gave me my first taste of men’s rugby.
“I was just enjoying playing rugby again rather than look for long term goals. I’m doing the same this year. It’s my first season in this league and I couldn’t have hoped for it to go better to be honest.
“I’ve got to credit my teammates for the way they welcomed me into the team. It allowed me to string some games together and helped me build on my confidence.
“This week has been very nice to recharge the battery after eight tough weeks. We’ve dropped our performance level slightly but we still managed to win ugly which says a lot about our character.
“We’ve got a tough game against Hartpury next week. They’ve been winning games by big margins so it’ll be good to see where we stand against one of the best teams in the league.”
