Sharp coup will help Exiles compete for top six says Russell
LONDON Scottish supremo Carson Russell is banking on his new coaching dream team of Jake Sharp and Dave Morris to fire the club into next season’s Championship top six.
As revealed in last week’s Rugby Paper, 25-year-old playmaker Sharp will join the Exiles from Bedford and chief executive Russell expects one of the brightest young coaches in the country to make a huge impact alongside ex-Loughborough man Morris.
Russell told TRP: “Jake is a well respected, highly regarded No.10 with lots of Championship experience and he’s ready for a fresh challenge. We hope to fulfil his ambitions as a player and use his coaching experience to drive the team strategically and tactically.
“Jake coaches at Oaklands College and he’s been part of the Saracens academy set-up as a skills coach for the last three years, so he’s a modern coach with great ideas who we believe will dovetail perfectly with our new director of rugby, Dave Morris.”
Although the financial realities of Championship rugby mean Scottish will scale back their roster of full-time players, Russell is confident they can compete.
He revealed: “Our squad will be 60 per cent full-time, 20 per cent part-time and 20 per cent dual-registered or loaned from Premiership clubs, with the odd player from Scotland, and we’ll run a squad of 36 players which we believe will provide sufficient depth.
“We are taking some risks but we’re confident we can put a side together to compete for the top six. Bristol will come down as hot favourites, while you’d expect Ealing, Doncaster and Jersey to be behind them, but the rest of us will be fighting it out.”
Russell points to the success of Richmond, adding: “Richmond have done a fantastic job and they’ve shaken up the league. They have surprised people by getting stronger despite having only a quarter of the budget of others.
They’ve shown the way.”
