Argaum Blog

About 4 years ago I retired from rugby due to being too old, too fat and too broken. I have retired before, and decided that the best thing to do was to distance myself completely, not even watching, as this had the “I could have another go” effect.
I hadn’t counted on my eldest (Stephen) wanting to play at Argaum, the most social rugby club I encountered over my 15 years of playing.
He started with the under 13’s this season with a handfull of boys and two coaches, Richard Belli and Mark Turner (who I’d played rugby with for the whole of the 15 years, at Jesters, then OPM’s). I think he was recognised by Mark (he was my shadow/mascot for a couple os seasons) and it was muted that I could maybe lend a hand with coaching. At first I was a little reluctant, but arrived on a Thursday night to be faced with a group of soon to be attitude laden teenagers, what had I let myself in for. Read the rest of this entry »

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the ELVs (Experimental Law Variations) and how they might affect the game. They are seen by some as a way of opening up the game in these days of tight defences but others see it the Southern Hemisphere (Australia in particular) trying to make union much more like league. Opponents argue that teams like Australia want to depower the scrum because they aren’t very good at scrummaging. Already the RFU and the WRU have come out against the ELVs. Plymouth Argaum’s traditional strength has always been the set scrum and rolling maul so maybe we should start having a look at these laws more closely. Well the RFU have given us a chance to have our say and are calling on players, coaches, referees, volunteers/administrators and parents to carry out an online survey on the RFU website. Read the rest of this entry »

I was lucky enough to be at Twickenham at the weekend to take in the various EDF finals. Catching the 6:55 am train from Plymouth (buffet car having ran out of bacon rolls by Newton Abbot!) enabled us to get to Twickenham in good time and we arrived at the stadium just as Chester were completing a 21-18 victory over the famous old club Birkenhead Park.

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