1:02pm Sunday 21st March 2010
By Matthew Colledge
Bridgwater and Albion coach Nick Hill believes his side’s turbulent season, which will end with relegation from National Two South, may prove a “blessing in disguise”.
Albion’s slide into a lower tier of rugby continued on Saturday with a 37-19 defeat at Richmond, despite a valiant second half display.
But Hill believes vital lessons have been learned this season about how the club should be run – lessons which he says will reap benefits in the long term.
He said: “There have been some bitter pills to swallow but maybe this is a blessing in disguise – sometimes you have to go right down to pick yourself up.
“I think lessons have been learned from this season. I’m looking now at bringing youngsters through and coaching them and developing them so we have a conveyor belt of players who are here for the right reasons.
“We don’t want people to come to Bridgwater for one season – we want them to come here and decide this is the club for their career.”
Hill says his goal next year will be to return Albion to National League rugby, but he says such an achievement would be worthless without the right structure in place at the club.
Hill also says there will be no resemblance between Albion this season and next.
He said: “You will see a totally different Nick Hill next season. Hopefully next season I will have a much stronger squad and better tools to work with.”
Albion have scored more points in recent games but have been leaking tries through “lazy defending”, according to Hill – something he wants his side to work on in the last five games of the season.
“At this level, your defence has to be very good indeed,” he added.
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