Following an uncertain first half of the season, Hoppers successfully secured their status in National 2 North. However, since the turn of the year there has also been plenty of off-field activity and Chairman of Rugby Mike Bailey has been busy adding to the squad, the entirety of whom have committed to next season already.
The pack is strengthened with the arrival of young prop, Tom Guest aged 22 (London Broncos, Chester, Lancashire) Tom has made his club debut recently and impressed with his skill set both in the scrum and around the pitch.
In addition, the backline has been boosted with the arrival of six new recruits. Centre Jake Maher (pictured above) aged 27, arrives from Sedgley Tigers and brings a wealth of experience in North West rugby. Will Hunt aged 25, has returned after successful spells playing in Scotland and Portugal and has put in some excellent performances in the number ten shirt over the last 3 months.
Talented KGS graduate Niall Povall aged 19, adds real pedigree to our pool of scrum-halves and is joined by fellow Sale academy alumni, Tom Lee, and Tobias Parkinson, who are both aged 19 and ply their trade in the back three. The youngest of the new signings is 18 year-old winger or full-back, Jack Lightowler who is a product of our mini-juniors and has also spent time with Sale academy.
When reflecting on the new signings, Alex Keay, Hoppers new Director of Rugby (following a long and distinguished tenure as DoR at Durham University winning no fewer than 5 BUCS titles including back to back National titles in the last 12 years) said “I’m really excited by who we’ve brought in, they’re all at a good age, have played at a good level and fit in with the type of exciting and attacking rugby we want to be playing. After consolidating our position this season, we really want to push on, so it was important that we strengthened the squad in several areas.”
Mike Bailey added, “Having had a busy couple of months talking to and re-signing our current players we have also managed to bring in some very talented young players and most of them are in and around the local area too. We had to move early to secure some of them and we absolutely believe that they can improve the group. Next season is going to be really exciting”.
