Bristol Bears Women’s head coach Dave Ward has spoken highly of the collaboration between teams and coaches across the club, as both their senior sides look to become powerhouses of the English game.
The Bears have a unique set-up of incredibly strong links between the men’s, women’s, and academy teams. These connections seamlessly allow for the sharing of knowledge and talent between coaches and players.
Ward explained: “The men’s head coach Pat [Lam] sat down with me and went through my team for the weekend. People don’t believe me when I tell them but he was saying ‘okay so she’s out, so she comes in’ and I think that’s pretty incredible.
“Yesterday the under-18 boys were training for their big game at the StoneX against Saracens on Sunday and Mark Irish was coaching them, and he said ‘Wardy can I grab three of your women to come and scrum.’
“Lark [Davies], Simi [Pam], Gwen [Pyrs] and Sarah [Bern] went across and were scrumming against with the under-18 boys because we were all training together. It’s such a unique environment but it’s very cool. Danny Grewcock texted me the following morning saying the girls were a credit to themselves and they held up well in the scrum,” he added.
Many female rugby players have to balance careers alongside playing high-level rugby. This results in a balance that coaches must perfect in order to protect the well-being of their players.
Ward takes the role of himself and his team in supporting the players incredibly seriously, which is facilitated by strong foundations at Bristol.
“If a player comes to training and she’s just had a 12-hour shift, the last thing she wants is me shouting at her to push harder in the scrum. Sometimes I’ll say ‘put a nice warm coat on, sit inside, have a cup of tea, watch the session, and we’ll go again on Thursday.’
“I’ve got to get that balance right. That’s where the women’s game is at the moment, but it’s also very exciting that we can do that and perform at the level that these girls perform at. Phoebe Murray is a great example, she’s delivering a baby at work and an hour later she’s here at a skills session,” he said.
“One of our values as the women’s programme is to accommodate. We’ve got professional rugby players and we’ve also got girls who are coming off the back of nightshifts as doctors for 12 hours for example.
“We have our Bear 360 programme which involves our performance coach, our psychologist, and our medical doctor. Their job is to look after the wellbeing of the girls, that’s nothing to do with rugby, they’re not involved in selection,”
The importance of ensuring the well-being of players is put to the forefront was seen recently as Bristol supported the relocation of prop Hannah Sims to her local club Harlequins.
“She’s probably one of the only players that can legitimately play one, two, and three in the league. We had a good chat with Hannah. She’s got some promotions at work which is amazing for her, she lives in Camberley and she was travelling to Bristol three times a week,” he described.
“All these things were getting on top of her and I was saying that she needs to enjoy her rugby. She wasn’t so we completely support her decision. We’re really happy for her to do that.
“She was amazing for us last season, she’s been great for us this season as well. She goes with our blessing and I have said to her that if she moves to the South West I better be her first phone call,” Ward said while smiling.
Written by Imogen Ainsworth
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