HARTPURY have improved year on year since joining the Championship but director of rugby John Barnes says they are up against it if they are to continue that trend.
Last season’s fifth-place finish marked a club record but with the top four plus sixth-placed Doncaster all full-time professional outfits, Barnes knows it will be tough to replicate last season.
Barnes told The Rugby Paper: “Providing we can keep players fit we’ll have another solid season and if we can get near to fifth again we’ll be pretty happy. Last season we had consistency in selection, we didn’t take too many injuries which isn’t always the case.
“We’re really looking forward to the Premiership Cup with Gloucester, Cornish Pirates and Exeter in our group. We’ve improved every year we’ve been in the Championship but that’ll be difficult to continue considering playing budgets above us.”
Barnes has retained most of last year’s squad but has lost former Wasp and Northampton inside centre Tommy Matthews to Coventry. Fly-half Harry Bazalgette finished as the second highest points scorer in the division last season, while Josiah Edwards-Giraud, right, has risen through the Hartpury setup and looks set to cause nightmares for opposition defences at 12 in Matthews place.
Barnes added: “We’ve had restrictions on our playing budget but kept the core of our squad that performed well last year. Tommy is still a student here which is a bit odd but he was given a decent financial offer from Coventry which we couldn’t compete with. We send best wishes to him and I’m sure he’ll come back here and play at some stage.
“His replacement JEG was outstanding in pre-season and has stepped up well. He’s got a mixed background of Afro-Caribbean, alongside French influence. He’s been here since he was 16, came through the college, last year he played England Students and BUCS Super Rugby. In our friendly against Ealing he was outstanding. He’s a great ball carrier and great defender. Again he stepped up pretty well last weekend. That’s what we do at Hartpury find a player with X factor.”
Hartpury opened their campaign last weekend with a 55-21 defeat at champions Ealing Trail-finders but endured nightmare preparation for the match.
“It was always going to be a difficult day starting at Ealing,” said Barnes. “That was made worse when our bus didn’t turn up so our players all had to drive; one of them broke down so I had to go collect him from the motorway and return only 15 minutes from kick off. No wonder we were 19-0 down after 10 minutes.
“We got back into it in the second half but gave away a yellow card and the floodgates opened.”
