Break in action comes at right time for Cambridge, says Richie Williams
By Steve Jackson
Richie Williams says the first National League week off has come at the right time for his Cambridge squad after an attritional start to the 2021-22 campaign.
Williams’ side were without injured centre Matt Hema, lock Kieran Frost and prop Billy Walker for their 22-22 draw with Darlington Mowden Park on Saturday.
Hooker Ben Brownlie was replaced after scoring twice – taking him to 11 tries for the season. The Cambridge director of rugby says player welfare is paramount.
“Ben is one of a few players who’ve played almost every minute of every game,” he said. “He was feeling it today. We could have brought him off a little earlier.
“Ben Adams, Anthony Maka, George Bretag-Norris – these are all boys that have played a lot of rugby, had a lot of minutes under their belts.
“Gareth Baxter – Mr Consistency – was back after injury, Zianna Alexis also got through another game starting for Billy (Walker). And Marc Koteczky came in for Matt (Hema), but again it’s going to take a few games for him to get back to the level that we expect from him.
“The physicality in National One has gone up massively – you saw that today from both teams. There were battered bodies at the end.
“You look at the Cambridge players now, and the Mowden Park boys who are on the floor… this is the story every week.
“There’s no game this season where you don’t see that physicality, those bumps and bangs at the end of games.
“The players are responding really well, but I definitely think it’s a blessing in disguise this season that there’s one less team in the league and therefore an extra two weekends off.
“We’ve certainly needed it and we’re going to need next weekend off just to patch up a few bodies and, more than anything, just for everyone to refresh themselves mentally because it’s constant.
“We know every season that as soon as you start on that first Saturday in September, you’re going through that mix of emotions every week, so it’s no different this season.”
He added: “I think the difference this time is that we’re far better equipped than we ever have been. Our squad depth is far greater and we’re seeing consistent performances.
“We’re definitely moving upwards and I know that after this weekend off we’ll approach that Tonbridge Juddians game at home and we’ll put in a big performance at Grantchester Road to get more points.
“The week off is well deserved by the players and staff – we’re eight games in, and if you take away the first three defeats we’re probably one win away from where we want to be at this stage.”
Willliams concluded: “We’ll be back here against Tonbridge when we start another block of five league fixtures where we’ll be targeting more league points.”
