Blues' effort is praised by Archer

The Newbury Blues head coach is happy with what he's seeing in pre-season training

PAUL Archer has been ‘very pleased’ with the attitude and effort of his squad as Newbury Blues returned to pre-season training.

Blues, who are undergoing a period of transition, returned to training at Monks Lane last week and the new head coach has been thrilled at the number of players turning up.

“I’ve been very pleased indeed,” Archer said. “The numbers have been good, despite the distraction of the World Cup.

“On Tuesday, we had 37 players come do a full session and the commitment has been good.

“It’s been great to see a lot of new faces, guys coming up from the Colts and guys coming back and we’ve made a strong start.”

As well as welcoming plenty of new players to the club, Archer has also made changes to his management squad now he has taken over from Lee Goodall at the end of last season.

He said: “We have our core guys in place, with Mick Futcher taking over from Bob Ward as team manager.

“Brian Lee has come in to take charge of the second and third team when required.”

Rhys Davies, who has retired from playing, is another addition.

Despite only having a few training sessions, Archer said they would focus more on the rugby side of things as opposed to fitness work.

He said: “Fitness is a by-product of what we’re doing – we are with the guys for a limited time during the week.

“When they are with us, we are working on playing rugby the way we want to play it.

We’re conscious about player welfare and we need to make sure we do a lot of rehabilitation going into the season so we can prevent injuries.