It’s a ‘proud moment’ to be named captain, says Belcher

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Hooker Liam Belcher says it was a ‘proud moment’ when he was named Club captain for the season by Head Coach Matt Sherratt.

The 28-year-old skippered the team for the majority of last season, while Club captain Josh Turnbull was unavailable through injury for much of the campaign.

Belcher has become one of Matt Sherratt’s most trusted players, known for his calm influence and immense work rate around the park.

Although he’s not daunted to captain the side, he will look for support from the squad’s senior players, many of whom arrived as new signings over the summer and have experience playing with the top teams in Europe.

“It’s a proud moment and a big honour for me and my family and I’m over the moon about it,” said Belcher.

“It’s not going to change from the role I did last year. We’ve brought in a few experienced boys like Josh McInally, Aled Davies and Callum Sheedy who will probably take on the roles of Ellis Jenkins and Tomos Williams from last year.

“It’s like anything, the more you do it, the more you get used to it. It’s like riding a bike!

“You’re only as good a captain as the group around you. I think we’ve got a decent leadership group here. I’m not a massive speaker to be honest with you. The boys speak well so I’ll let them lead the way on some things.”

“If you look at the people we’ve brought in and the clubs they’ve played for before, you’ve got Josh with Bath, Ed (Byrne) with Leinster and Aled with Saracens. Those three clubs are towards the top of their leagues and are respected.

“So, standards-wise, they bring that a lot. For young boys and even myself, it’s good to see. Because you see what the standard is for these top-tier clubs and that’s what we’re striving for. The standard in training has gone up and hopefully that’ll show in matches.”

Training has recently been aided by the return of the Welsh international players who toured Australia in the summer. It has allowed training to ramp up over the last few weeks, leading into the BKT United Rugby Championship season opener against Zebre Parma on Friday, 20th September.

“It has been different, certainly better than last year!’ added Belcher.

“It was nice having the Wales boys back. That’s the first time we’ve gone 15 v 15. We had a block of five weeks where we had 23 boys, which is a lot more than last year.

“But anyone will know that the more you can get 30 players on the field and do 15 v 15, the more you can implement what you’ve done in drills into game environments.”

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