Old Priorian Rugby Football Club CONTENTS

Old Priorian Rugby Football Club OPRFC NEWSLETTER January 2021 Issue Photo credit: Mr Tsang CONTENTS Chairman’s Note 02 Match Report: EALING 1871 vs OPRFC 07 Head Coach’s Report 08 Season Review 09 Captains Report 11 Chairman’s Note OldBy Alex Priorian Pereira-Inacio Rugby, OPRFC Chairman Football Club To say the 2019/20 season was one we would rather forget and certainly wish to never encounter again is an understatement. Our rugby, which I will let others develop on, despite showing some real signs of promise across both sides was blighted with injuries, tough opposition and us not living up to potential. The emergence of a number of youngsters was a highlight that I am sure will feature further on in this publication. However, all three sides from National 3 that had been relegated found their way into London 1 North and it was an portentous omen for what lay ahead. Our relegation was imposed upon us with 4 games left to play and I was told with no uncertainty not to appeal the decision. Whilst I like to think the RFU was worried about our landmark appeal having a knock-on effect on Saracens, it’s more likely an algorithm somewhere made the decision on their behalf. Denied the opportunity of a Hollywood ending to a torrid season or any Hail Mary play in the last minutes of our final game the club took the relegation with stoicism. Once bruised egos subsided two things became clear. Firstly, this was a chance to shore up the club. In some instances, the fun had gone out of playing and supporting OP rugby. With long trips to North Walsham, playing various southern hemisphere journeymen on the payroll at Essex clubs, financial commitments and the rigmarole of entertaining opposite committee members the sense of fun that the club in its most recent form had been founded on had ebbed away. There seems to be a communal assurance within the club that London NW2 and so many local fixtures and watering holes will be the catalyst to bring it back. I’ll miss the five course lunches at North Walsham and the time (At Southend RFC) where someone called me “Sir” without adding “you’re causing a scene”. I don’t however doubt we will be back at this level and very likely at a higher one in years to come. Photo credit: Col Palfrey 2 Chairman’s Note OldBy Alex Priorian Pereira-Inacio Rugby, OPRFC Chairman Football Club Secondly, bigger and more important things than relegation were afoot. I won’t delve into the Covid19 pandemic here, you’ve probably had enough opinions on it, but I would like to discuss briefly how it has affected us beyond the cessation of the leagues. Numerous club members felt the impact. Many with their health, many with their employment and some with the loss of loved ones. The club itself very nearly lost two of its own. Luke Engmann who has played all across the pitch, held various committee positions, run tours and is a Life Vice President was in a coma for 3 weeks first at Ealing Hospital and then at Charing Cross. He came out of the coma safely and on his way home was told his wife was pregnant with their second child. Rumours he asked for the car to return him to the hospital are inaccurate, but please feel free to circulate them. Andrew Sarek a former member of the RFU Council and currently OPRFC committee member was struck down too, spending 9 weeks on a ventilator and suffering a number of strokes during this period. Amazingly after some rehabilitation Andrew is already working a few hours a week from home and has been down to watch OPs play in the touch league. Remarkably, or perhaps not if you know either of them, both characters proved their resilience and survived, both are fast on their way back to (the new) normalities of life. We have a huge debt of gratitude to those that looked after them during this time and one that as a club we intend to try and pay back. There is no doubt that when the dust finally settles these stories will evolve into their own anecdotes and jokes, but the concern at the time was very real. Partly in light of this and partly due to the desire to keep socialising during such hard times the social secs arranged an online Quiz Night, attended by close to 50 people, which raised just north of £500 which the club donated to the NHS. Adding to this Jack Dever is in the process of organising a 100 km London to Brighton bike ride with currently 17 people signed up to raise funds for the NHS as well the club. More details on this to follow. 3 Chairman’s Note OldBy Alex Priorian Pereira-Inacio Rugby, OPRFC Chairman Football Club Off the field, the committee continued to meet online in an attempt to do our best to steer the club through some pretty difficult times. It seems we have managed it, so far. Hopefully we can go further and position the club so in the not too distant future a new group can take over in less turbulent times. A quorate and well attended AGM was held outdoors at Perivale. Committee positions were voted on, a financial summary was giving for the year, a code of conduct that the committee had been working on was agreed and should now be available on the website and the highlight was a talk from one of the clubs Life VPs Rashid Alawiye. Rash was asked (with Mark Machado) to speak to the club about racism after he shared a piece on the clubs whatsapp group that he wrote. I won’t try to do it justice , you can read it for yourself here. It’s an important piece and the discussion that we had at the AGM led by Rash and Mark says a lot about the club being more than just a place people come to play 80 minutes of rugby. The AGM saw Peter Halsall’s 2 year tenure as President come to an end and the mantle passed on to Joe Codrington. Peter, as many across the whole rugby landscape will know is a force of nature. What he doesn’t know about rugby isn’t worth knowing, and those he doesn’t know in rugby probably aren’t worth knowing. We have to say a huge thank you to him. Not just for everything he did for many of us as a teacher but for everything he did at OPs and ultimately for rugby. I’m very confident he won’t be going too far from OPs and hopefully I can arrange an interview for the next newsletter. It’s a big pair of shoes to fill and I look forward to whenever we have an end of season dinner again so I can invent some sort of drink off between the two. Joe continues the theme of having a great head of hair in the role of President and allegedly knows a thing or two about rugby. Research shows red wine sales will continue to stay high with the new Presidency. Photo credit: Col Palfrey 4 Chairman’s Note OldBy Alex Priorian Pereira-Inacio Rugby, OPRFC Chairman Football Club A big loss to the club in the 2019/20 was the departure of Edd Conway. Edd was very much his own institution at OPs. Player and Committee member 2008-2014, Assistant Coach 2016-17 and finally DoR 2017-2020. He did all this alongside coaching at Guys Hospital, United Hospitals, London Irish DPP, Latymer Upper, Kew House, Middlesex and Serge Betsen Rugby. Despite this huge workload Edd never lost his genuine enthusiasm for OPs. His desire to see his peers to do better was very evident in the culture he helped build over the last three years. There is no doubt he was successful in his endeavours. He is very much responsible along with Myles Stringer for the recent uptake in OP rugby from St. Benedict’s school , something that should serve us very well in the future. Edd has moved onto a fulltime role at Merchant Taylors School. Our loss is very much their gain. Stepping into his place as Head Coach is Adam Preocanin. Adam seems to have been in and around rugby all of his life having been at Saracens, London Scottish, Ealing Trailfinders and most recently at Old Elthamians in National 1 where he was a player coach. He also adds to our international brigade having been capped by Germany against the USA. Ably assisted as ever by Myles Stringer who not only is looking at S & C this year but also stats and is meeting the ever increasing appetite for data. Jack Dever has made the step this year to assisting with backs coaching and with this we have Joe Codrington and Kevin Whitcomb helping out as well. Every year it seems as though one of us is moaning about funds and alluding to the need of donations. So this year I won’t. Everybody has been stretched thin in 2020. Everybody has more pressing matters to be honest. With that our finance team of Borthwick, Simpson & Boorman have kept us in pretty good shape. Due to a recommendation at the AGM, we should be launching some interactive fundraising which Sport England will aim to match. The idea being that we put together funds that see the club through for the next 3-4 years allowing us to focus on other priorities.

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