Eric Jones has been a bit of a revelation for Corstorphine Cougars women’s team. Having joined in the midst of the ‘split’ we are now beginning to see some real rewards as our ladies go from strength to strength as they benefit from having a permanent level 3 coach.

Although he’s recently become a Dad he’s found time between sleepless nights, training sessions and games to answer some questions...

Q: So tell us a little about you’re rugby career...

I played at Stewarts Melville College (School Rugby) and Gala (Club Rugby), played South of Scotland (Age Grade), then played at Boroughmuir for a couple of seasons before a knee injury and work stopped me playing for a few years. Came back to playing with Leith before getting a 2nd knee operation and stopping playing. I then coached RDVC Ladies for 1 season before coaching Leith Men for 3 seasons where we won East 3 and retained our place in East 2. I was an Assistant Coach for Scotland Women u20's for 3 season. I then coached Lismore Men for 3 seasons. I've also coached East of Scotland Girls u18's, Scotland Series and i'm the head coach for the Fosroc Early Talent ID Programme (u16-18).

Q: You've had a year at the helm already, how have you settled in and what did you enjoy most last year?

Last season was about getting to know the players and what their strengths, motivations and ambitions were as well as settling into new surroundings as a squad. Whilst we had some notable wins last season the highlight for me was the character we displayed in the last couple of minutes against Watsonsions to go down the pitch and get the win. This showed me that our players were not happy with a draw and were not going to sit back and accept that.

Q: You've had a good influx of new players - is it tough finding a balance between coaching the newbies and the more experienced players in the squad?

We've managed to bring in a group of players who have some rugby experience, however, we've also attracted players from different sports. We have a Gaelic Footballer and a player with mountain biking experience which is great. The more experienced players are great at working with the new players, so even if I'm taking the session, there are a number of players helping get messages across to the new players at the same time. It can be like having 4 or 5 assistant coaches on the training pitch at times. I believe that this also helps the more experienced players as well as they get a deeper understanding of their roles if they have to them explain things to new players. The main thing for me as a head coach is to work out who needs what support. If a player turns up with a good team sport back ground it may be that we have to get them up to speed on the laws of rugby. If they come from an individual sport such as athletics, it may be that we need to focus on getting them up to speed on the fundamental skills, or we may have a player who is returning after a break from the sport, so conditioning may be the main focus.

Q: It's going to be a strange year with the league structure so broken up, how are you preparing the team for the year ahead?

On the training pitch we are preparing the players for each game as they come, as we would had the season structure remained the same. I think it's important to maintain that mindset to ensure we hit 2019 in the best place possible in terms of skills, but also in mentality. If we approached the transition period as a meaningless number of games then I think standards and expectations may slip and that could be hard to recover. I think the players have bought into this, as we've had some really good sessions through pre season.

Off the pitch there are a number of things going on in the background to ensure that Corstorphine Cougars are compliant with the criteria set out by Scottish Rugby to get into the Premier League in 2019. We want to provide the opportunity for our players to play at whatever level they want to. To achieve this we are working hard to make that possible. The Senior Women's player pool in Edinburgh is really stretched at the moment with 6 Clubs in the Leagues and 2 or 3 more in the NDL. So we're taking steps to make sure we have the best opportunities for the player who wants to play International rugby, or those that are new to the game and maybe want the social experience of rugby first and foremost. I think the criteria set out by Scottish Rugby is a positive move whilst also challenging. If we really want to improve the standard of the Premier League we need 1st and 2nd XV's to provide depth and challenge. There needs to be pathways for young players into Senior Rugby. So we're working hard to make this happen in what I would describe as a fractured landscape. Hopefully over the next few months we'll be able to provide a clearer picture of how this looks for the young aspiring player within the Edinburgh area.

The main focus for the players though, is getting better with each session and each game we play.

Q: How do you think we're going to do this year - what's the minimum targets you want to hit?

I think we're going to play a lot better rugby than last season. Yes, we want to win games, however, it can be difficult to set outcome goals in the Premier League as it can really depend on which players are available for ourselves and our opposition on any given Sunday. We want to come off the pitch having played the best rugby we can and I think that showed in our first game of the season, even though the result didn't go our way. With players starting to gel we'll hopefully see some of the passes stick that didn't. We have some of the most exciting and creative players in the League and hopefully we'll see that on the pitch this season.

Thanks Eric and good luck for the season ahead.

Pic credit: @39DesignPhotography