Refreshed Blues looking to maintain status as Champ contenders

Mike Rayer has seen it all in two decades at Goldington Road and knows that backing up last season’s runners-up finish in Champ Rugby will be a huge ask.

Only Champ heavyweights Ealing finished ahead of Bedford Blues last season, with a seven-game winning streak at the end of the campaign cementing their place as the number two side in the second tier.

But former Wales full-back Rayer is only too aware of how difficult maintaining momentum from one season to the next can be, particularly with considerable turnover in his squad ahead of the new campaign.

That includes a new forwards coach in Cameron Boon, replacing Tom Cruse who has departed to Worcester Warriors after they returned to the league system, as well as a few new faces in the playing squad.

Rayer explained that the first challenge for him and his coaching staff has been getting the group all the same page, including a trip to the south west to warm them up.

He said: “It’s a big challenge for us, we’ve lost quite a few players. We’ve been able to keep a lot of continuity over the last couple of years which probably aided us in what happened last season. It’s been a big challenge integrating about 10 or 11 players this year.

“But that is good, different voices, different challenges, we’ve got a new forwards coach as well. It’s good to hear the new voices but the proof of the pudding is when we get underway.

“We went to Pirates to play on a Friday night (in pre-season) and stayed down and did a bit of coasteering. In essence, spending hours on a coach trip serves a purpose as well because the boys sit by each other and chat.

“You have some social stuff you do but rather than force it, you try to make it organic and pick times out that naturally feed that process of bringing people together.”

It is all change in Champ Rugby this season with the return of the play-offs for the top six in the league, while 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.

That will give rugby fans all over the world the opportunity to see some of the brightest young talents in England in action, with budding superstar Henry Pollock having first caught the eye with Bedford before breaking through for Northampton Saints, England and most recently the Lions.

Rayer, meanwhile, finds himself up against a number of his former charges this season, with Doncaster Knights coach Darren Fearn and Coventry boss Alex Rae among those who have played under the Welshman – an added challenge he enjoys.

Rayer added: “There are a few in the coaching group who have been at Bedford. That’s all good. They have probably got the inside track on me, knowing how I operate, but that is the great challenge.

“You can’t stand still, you’ve got to move on and look for the different trends in the game and see what ceiling the new players have coming in. We don’t know enough about them at this stage but we’d like to think we’ve got players in who have got a bit of growth in them.”

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