ABERDEEN PRESS AND JOURNAL REVEALS

Rubislaw revolution
Published: 30/06/2009

Alex Duncan:philosophy of change

Former Ellon rugby coach Alex Duncan has been planning for this week since the beginning of the year. Duncan stepped into the breach at Aberdeen Grammar in January when Mike O’Donovan ended his season-and-a-half spell at Rubislaw to return to New Zealand.

Duncan was given the Grammar role on a caretaker basis alongside Mark Borowski, but he already had ideas about developing the Rubislaw club with the emphasis on two teams – one on the field and one preparing the players.

The Grammar committee is sold on Duncan’s vision – with a return to Premiership Division 1 top of the list of priorities.

The new coach, who is also a teacher at Bucksburn’s Bankhead Academy, is keen to lay the foundations in the next eight weeks of pre-season before the new campaign starts in August. The team ethos of coaching and playing is well under way.

Duncan said: “The idea is to develop a system which doesn’t rely on any one person. We will all have specialist roles which we can combine. I hope this approach will allow the club to invest what funds it does have in the playing staff. You can be the best coach in the world, but you need the players to be a success.

“I will be head coach alongside Mark Borowski, who helped last year as assistant coach, with Alan Hardie working as forwards coach.

“Mike Avis, who has a football background, Keith Oddie and Rob Currie, who will be doing strength and conditioning, will form the rest of the coaching team.

“Rob has individual programmes and aerobic routines in place for the players and we will visit Cromdale outdoor centre for a team bonding session, which was well received last year. We are aware it will be the beginning of August before we get the whole squad together due to holidays, but we want to get the squad together as quickly as possible before the season starts on August 29.”

The hunt for new players is progressing well. Most important will be replacing Ashleah McCulloch, whom Duncan believes is destined for pastures new.

The SRU has identified the Scotland under-20 centre as a future international and Duncan expects McCulloch to be playing his rugby in Edinburgh next season.

He said: “Our player recruitment is going well. We have identified key players who will be coming to the club from different parts of the world. There will be a couple of overseas players, a couple from Glasgow who fortunately for us are moving up here due to non-rugby commitments, and a couple of age-group players who are coming to Aberdeen University.

“We’re buoyed by the fact the new changing rooms are due to open next month. Our facilities have been a bit of a hindrance in the past two years and I think the quality of facilities will make a big difference when it comes to attracting players.

“We don’t have the same depth of rugby up here and individuals who do well here are naturally fast-tracked to Glasgow or Edinburgh.

“We expect Ashleah to be placed with Edinburgh next year which is to be expected as we don’t have a professional side here to keep our best players.

“Centre Ewan Campbell is also going to New Zealand for a year, but we are close to getting new faces in.

“We have a fireman who played for Glasgow Hawks and another player who played for Northampton, who now lives in Huntly who will be coming along to training.”

This article was posted on 30-Jun-2009, 13:11 by Hugh Barrow.