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ANDREW TRIMBLE
It must be a massive honour to be named
club captain?
Absolutely. It’s not something I’d targeted in my
career, so I was surprised when Les approached
me and asked me to be captain along with Rob.
I didn’t have to go away and think about it, it’s
such a huge honour, especially when you look at
the past captains. Rory is someone I would like
to emulate. It’ll be tough to follow in his footsteps
but myself and Rob are really up for the challenge
and are very excited about it.
Your family must be delighted?
Yes, they’re all so pleased, regardless of their
background and exposure to rugby, they all know
what an honour it is to be named as captain and
lead this team. It’s a big honour for both of us
to lead the group of
guys we have right
now, there’s something
very special about the
potential we have this
season, so we’re really
looking forward to it.
How have the fans
reacted to the news?
The fans have been
supportive considering
having a shared
captaincy is slightly
unorthodox. With
a leader as strong and respected as Rory the
tendency is for the team to always look to him
to decide what to do. It’ll be good for the rest
of us to take more ownership and lead the
team together. We want to take the PRO12 and
Champions Cup by the scruff of the neck and
move it on. Taking ownership of this team as
a group of individuals, friends, colleagues and
players is how we want to move forward.
How did Les break the news to you?
He asked me to stay behind after a meeting,
which is more often to deliver bad news than
good news! I was racking my brains trying to
work out what I’d done wrong but I thought I was
whiter than white! He explained his idea to me
about moving forward with two captains, which
I thought was a great idea, so now I’m really
looking forward to seeing what it looks like on the
pitch.
How has pre-season training gone for you?
It’s been up and down. I’ve had a few niggles
which I’ve been working through and I’m getting
there now. The boys have been training really
hard and it’s all come together now, which we
saw on Friday night against Northampton. It
was a real reminder of where we’re at with our
facilities, players, coaches, crowd – everything is
up another level. It’s great to see all the hard work
of preseason coming to a climax and putting a
few tries in against Northampton. Obviously there
are a few things to work on, there always will be
with preseason games, but it’s a great point to
launch us in to the season. We have to hit the
ground running, we’re in for a tough start against
the Dragons, we have to get going early – you
don’t win the league in the last few games of the
season, you start at
week one.
How do you think
the team performed
in the warm-up
games?
Great! There were a
lot of positives. Robert
Lyttle’s kicking game
on Friday night was
fantastic – he proved
he’s got a lot of strings
to his bow and he’s a
very talented player.
Charles Piutau obviously tore it up and reminded
everybody how good he is. We’ve built a bit of
excitement for the season ahead, I can’t think of
anyone who didn’t have a good game. We have
a lot of depth in the team - there were around
15 guys unavailable for selection against the full
strength Northampton side and we still took them
apart for 50 minutes and hung in long enough to
deliver the win, so there’s a lot of positives.
I’m sure you’re looking forward to getting
stuck back in at Kingspan Stadium?
Absolutely. Friday was a reminder of how great
the atmosphere here is. When there’s a big match
the home crowd really get the team going. If we
turn up and perform well on Friday night we’re
a really tough side to beat at home, this is our
fortress. I’m excited to be a part of this, especially
in a leadership role with Rob.
ANDREW TRIMBLE
Q&A