Nottingham can sink or swim in new Champ Rugby season

It's sink or swim time for Nottingham in a revamped Champ Rugby season – good job the team have geared up for the season on the water.

Craig Hammond will be taking charge of the team for his fifth season since returning to the club for whom he made more than 300 appearances as a player.

And after finishing seventh in the league a year ago, the appeal of a top-six finish is a tantalising one this year, with the return of the play-off system.

That will not be easy, particularly with the return of Worcester Warriors, who boast international and even British & Irish Lions players among their ranks, as well as league heavyweights Ealing Trailfinders.

But Hammond is excited at the prospect of what Nottingham can do, and has got the squad throwing themselves into preseason.

He said: “We do some whitewater rafting at Holme Pierrepont, we’ve got quite a good deal there. The boys think it’s a nice, gentle ride down the river but we get them to dunk us and flip us, the boys have got to work together. We’ve been doing that the last couple of years and it’s been pretty class.

“We challenge them to bring the team together because it’s their team. It’s about how we mould that group, they have been challenged to do stuff most weeks. We don’t have a massive budget so it’s about being creative.

“We’ve had a bit of change, a few older players have moved on and we’ve got a few young guys come in who are a bit raw, which is a good challenge for us as coaches.

“It’s bit of a changing of the tide, a bit of rotation and a good opportunity for some of these guys to come in and put their hands up.

“We’ve lost about five leaders who have moved on to other clubs. The challenge is to make we’ve got another leadership group and some young leaders.

“We’ve got a pretty small squad so touch wood, we can keep everyone fit.”

Among those coming in this season are promising loosehead prop Oscar Scott, who joins from Durham University, while hooker Ben Brownlie is back after a spell at Cambridge.

It is all change in Champ Rugby this season, not only with the return of the play-offs for the top six, as well as relegation play-offs for the bottom three, but matches will also be streamed on Ireland’s largest streaming platform, Clubber TV.

It marks the first time that all 182 league games, as well as the play-offs, will be available to stream on the subscription-only service.

And Hammond is thrilled to see a much-needed overhaul of the competition, while acknowledging the extra challenges it poses the coaches.

He said: “It’s exciting, I think it was needed. It wasn’t stale but since I’ve been back here, we’ve been battling. It puts a bit more jeopardy and if you get to February and you’re in the hunt for the top six, or if you are down the bottom four or six, every game will mean something.

“For a few of us with smaller squads, we’ll have to be smart with what that looks like.”

The Champ Rugby 25-26 season starts on October 3. For more information, visit www.champrugby.com