New coach for Poorte juniors

The Roodepoort Rugby Club’s U/20 and U/21 teams have a new coach in Patrick Ross-Allen.

This comes after the Golden Lions Rugby Union changed the U/19 team to the U/20 team so they can be in line with international regulations and players can become eligible for the Junior Springboks team.

Ross-Allen arrives with a wealth of experience after having coached numerous teams including the UJ sevens, the U/16 Golden Lions Presidents team and the Golden Lions senior sevens team in the past four years.

“In my younger years I played rugby for the army and my love for the sport grew from there until I found myself in coaching,” he said.

With the preseason friendly matches underway, Ross-Allen is looking to build a team that won’t just compete but to win and challenge for the league title.

“The team has been doing fitness training so I look forward to the actual matches so I can see where the team needs to improve. We have a decent crop of talented young players that I can coach but we are always looking to recruit more so we can have a stronger team. That way I can mould the team into title contenders. We are not here to just fill up the spaces,” he said.

To do that, Ross-Allen plans to instill a belief in the players and a winning mentality.

“The players must believe in themselves and their teammates. They must be ready for each and every game they play. Trust your coach, trust your teammates and trust yourself,” he said.