Tamar Saracens signing a lease on their pitch at Parkway
TAMAR Saracens are holding a social event at their Parkway ground today which they hope will help the club on and off the field next season.
Saracens are having a ‘beer and gear’ day, which will involve players turning up for a drink but also to do some work around the ground.
“We’ll all be having a beer, but also pulling out all the equipment and seeing what needs to be replaced and decorating the changing rooms and stuff like that,” said player and spokesman Mark Coiffi. “It’s just a bit of team bonding.
“It gets the players to muck in. If players just come and play rugby and they don’t feel part of the club, but when you start helping each other out you get to know each other off the pitch and it makes it a better group.”
Saracens recently signed a 25-year lease on their ground and have plans to gradually improve it. They have already done a few bits of work on it.
“They have put up a lot of barriers around the pitch where people can put sponsors boards,” said Cioffi. “It will also make it better for supporters. They’ve also changed the access route to the pitch.
“They are in the process of getting extra floodlights up.”
After a difficult season in the Cornwall/Devon League, Saracens are keen to regroup and enjoy a good campaign in Devon One.
They officially start pre-season on June 20, but, Cioffi, says most of the team have continued training since the end of last season.
“We have not actually stopped,” he said. “We’ve training every week. Believe it or not last week we had 32 people there and that was without some regulars. There also been a few surprise players turn up.
“Devon One is a very physical league and we are looking to bring in some strength and recruitment appears to be going well.”
Saracens will start the 2017/18 season playing Devon Two sides DHSOB, Plympton Victoria and St Columba/Torpoint in the David Butt Memorial Trophy.
The club know they got a good draw in the pool rounds, avoiding any of the Devon One rivals, but they also know there will be incredible pressure on them because everyone will be expecting them to reach the semi-finals.
“The group is a great draw, but you’ve got to give all the teams respect,” said Cioffi.
“Can you believe our first game of the season is DHSOB, which is my old club. They are the club that taught me rugby.
“On their day DHS are a strong side, if they get a full team out. They will be very physical and tough opponents, but a lot depends on the team they put out.”
Saracens will still have some pre-season fixtures before the David Butt Trophy starts.
“We’ll have a few fixtures before as we want as many games as possible,” said Cioffi
“We could do really well (in the David Butt Cup) and more players want to come over to us or we could be a laughing stock. All the pressure is going to be on us. But we’ll take each game as it comes.”
Saracens held their dinner dance last weekend where Frazer Tatchell, another former DHSOB player, won the players’ player of the year and coaches’ player of the year awards. Curtis Turpin picked up the clubman of the year award, while Brendan Bevan was voted most improved player.