CHEY BRYCE has admitted it was a tough decision to leave his coaching role at Devon One club Tamar Saracens.

Devon hooker Bryce (pictured centre) has coached the city side for the last 16 months while he was out with an ACL injury.

However, now he is fit again, the 27-year-old has decided to return to South West Premier side Brixham and just concentrate on playing.

“It was a big decision,” said Bryce. “I think Tamar Saracens is a great club and I know I am going to miss it, but at the end of the day I am 27 years-old. I have to try and play the best standard of rugby I can for the longest period I can. I want to try and push on again and see what my body can take.

“But I will be keeping a massive eye on what Saracens are doing. I hope they do really well. I do love the club and they have help my mind stay focussed on rugby.

“I will probably go back to Tamar Saracens when I have finished playing, but at the moment I still want to play rugby and want to keep getting better.”

He added: “The reason I took the job (at Saracens) in the first place was because I couldn’t go watch Brixham as it was too frustrating, but after four or five weeks out from rugby I missed the atmosphere in the changing rooms and just the ethos.

“The coaching was only meant to be for the remainder of that season (2016/17), but they asked me to do the next one as well.

“I could have gone back to Brixham around January/February time but I had committed to Tamar Saracens for the season. I’m a man of my word and so I wanted to stick by what I had promised.”

Bryce met with Pete Lethbridge and Dan Leeson last week and says he has written to all the players and committee.

He is hoping the Ernesettle-based club can build on the way they played in the second half of this season when they pulled away from the relegation zone after a difficult start to the campaign.

“I think that David Butt Trophy at the start of the season gave us false illusions and we maybe got ahead of ourselves and we came back down with a bit of a bang inthe semi-finals and that had a knock-on effect for the rest of the season,” said Bryce. “But I think the second half of the season we were able to show what we had been working on for the last six or seven months.

“We have built a culture and an ethos down at Tamar Saracens. Players had to train on a Thursday night no matter what. If they didn’t they won’t play.

“I think Pete is going to be staying around and I don’t think they are going to change too much to what we have done this season.”