Jamie, how have you spent the last year after retiring from your playing position and what inspired you to get into coaching?
It has been predominantly spent training to try new fitness ventures. I currently spend 3 hours training Muay Thai a week and have bought a triathlon bike to complete an Ironman. So, trying to keep busy.
Coaching has always been a passion of mine, and when the opportunity arose to work with Brad and be back involved with the club it was a pretty easy choice to make.
Brad, you are still playing for the 1st XVs alongside your new coaching position. How do you manage both and how does one help the other?
Well, the plan wasn’t really to play 1st team this year, but with injuries and Parf leaving us matched with us struggling to get signings in on time, I’ve been roped in to play at TIGHT HEAD of all positions. I still like playing for the first team; it’s always good to test yourself. However, I should have thought more before agreeing to play at tight head, maybe – that’s been tough.
Managing both playing and coaching has been really difficult, especially last week. I played 80 minutes for the firsts and didn’t even have time to shake hands as I had to rush off and sort out the Nomads. It’s good though; lots of the first team squad will be coming down to play with us and it’s always good to be involved with Hammo, PJ and Snoop’s sessions as the quality is second to none and I’m constantly learning. I just hope I don’t have many more 80 minute stints at tight head.
Can you both tell us a bit about the culture you are trying to create within the Nomads this year?
Brad: When Jamie and I first spoke about doing this, our sort of tag line was ‘we want good blokes with boots.’ This season we are trying to do away with egos and real intensity and we just want the boys to have a bit of fun. When the boys start having fun, everything else falls into place.
The Nomads have had a tough last couple of years and that’s not Matt or Jon’s fault. We had a great year in 2017 with the likes of Jordan Campbell, Adam Rowe, Sean Deasey, Luke Davey, James Honey, Lucas Duley, Mark Coebergh, the Cullen brothers and Mozza – even the legend that is Stuart Gunn pulled his boots on for us a few times that year. We were incredibly unlucky to not win anything. If it hadn’t been for injuries to first team players I think we would have done.
But the year after Mark moved up to first team and everyone else stopped playing or moved away from Hong Kong. Jon took over a decimated side and it was tough to get any form of culture or a regular team. I look back to that year about why we were so good and it’s literally just because we were having fun playing with our mates, all sticking round for a beer after etc. Yeah, we wanted to win, but we made sure we had a good time doing so.
That’s the exact same thing Jamie and I are trying to build. We’ve pulled in a few of the older boys from retirement and found a couple of young lads, and we’re both looking forward to chucking the ball about and having some fun on a Saturday afternoon with our mates.
Jamie: Trying to create an identity of what HK Scottish was built from. Good rugby players playing for your mates and enjoying the social side of the game as well as helping push the 1st team to success. Some of our best years as a club has been when we have had a strong Nomads section pushing for selection into the 1s and giving some competition for places.
What should we expect from the Nomads this season – what does success look like?
Brad: I’d love to say we’re gonna win the league, however, the Dragons are as good as most first teams so I’m not setting my stall on that just YET. For me success is two things: the first one is I want boys to want to play nomads again; last year when I found myself finishing a game for the first team I didn’t want to go over and play Nomads. It was no fun, there was no craic with the boys and we were often on the receiving end of a hiding. Also, we found boys not wanting to step up from the Bravehearts. The nomads was this sort of ‘no-man’s land’ (no-mads land) between the two teams that no one wanted to be in. This year, I want boys to want to step up and the boys coming down from the Ones are going to want to be using the Nomads as a launch pad to getting back in with the firsts.
The second thing is I want to see some of the younger lads (the likes of Edison, Brucey, Liam Doherty) really progress and be putting pressure on Hammo for them to be picked. Edison has come in this year and he’s raw but there’s definitely a big time player in there, Brucey has come back from uni and he’s much more physical and aggressive and everyone knows what Liam can do for the Nomads. He has just been so unlucky with injuries he’s not had a chance to do it on the reg for the Ones yet.
Jamie: We have a few goals we set out as coaches that we want to achieve this year. One is to be able to fulfil our league commitments, that is a must for the club to continue to grow.
Secondly, we would like to develop some of the new local talent we have in our Bravehearts team- giving them the chance to play at a higher level. Thirdly, to beat one of the big two teams in the Prem A.
It has been a challenging year for players due to COVID-19. How do you plan to keep morale and motivation high amongst the team?
Morale’s going to be high as we’ve got such a good group of players. When you’ve got such a good group of boys you don’t need to force anything to keep morale high. We will, of course, be getting involved with the first team in their socials and tom-foolery. The first team does awards every week and that’s something I’ve noticed the boys look forward to so we’ll be doing the same with the Nomads. Also, and probably most importantly, we’re going to play good rugby. No one wants to scrum, maul and kick their way to a victory; we’re going to chuck it about a bit and give Roy, Stewart, Marie and co watching a feast for the eyes.
Jamie, what’s Brad like as a coach? Who is Good-cop/Bad-cop?
Really Northern…. only good cops in the Nomads! Brad and I work really well together as he is over the top organised and I am the complete opposite. Players will love playing for Brad as they will see how much effort he (we) will put into the Nomads to develop the club and them as players. He is a real motivator so no doubt he will have the boys geared up ready for training or games.
It’s great working with Brad who has the same passion and love for the club as I do and that is why we work so well together.
Brad, same question to you – what’s Jamie like as a coach?
Yeah, he’s alright. We’re good mates and when he asked if we fancied doing it together I was really keen. We both have similar views and were excited by a challenge. Jamie is incredibly knowledgeable. He’s proved in the 100 + games he’s played for Scottish that he’s incredibly tactically astute, and he’s a teacher by profession so passing that knowledge on comes pretty easily to him, which means it’s really easy to work with him. As for who’s Good-cop and Bad-cop, I don’t think there will be any need for a bad cop but if there was it would have to be him. I’m too soft, too much of a people pleaser.
What message do you have for anyone looking to join this season and how do they get involved?
Do you own boots? Yes. Are you a good bloke? Yes. Then you’ve made the cut. Get yourself down to training Thursday nights at THT. If you have any questions feel free to email the club or send us a message on Insta or Facebook. We look forward to hearing from you.
