Edinburgh coaches bring boost to Haddington RFC

The club’s senior coaching team, led by Head Coach Sean Everitt, took part in a pre-season coaching clinic with the amateur side’s senior and colts teams.

Around 60 players from the East Lothian club turned out for the session, which was the culmination of a competition Edinburgh Rugby ran for local clubs to win a professional coaching clinic.

The Edinburgh and Haddington coaches linked up at Neilson Park

Everitt was joined in the session by Stevie Lawrie (Forwards Coach), Michael Todd (Defence Coach) and new Attack and Backs Coach Scott Mathie, who had only just arrived in the country two days prior.

Everitt expressed his delight at the experience which saw all coaches take on a 60-minute session at Haddington’s Neilson Park.

“It was fantastic to come down and spend some time with the Haddington players,” he said.

“The quality of rugby on show was impressive, and it was clear that the players were really buying into the session. They were eager to learn and improve, which is always great to see.

“We wish the Haddington squad and management the very best for the new season.”

Michael Todd takes a defence drill with Haddington

Haddington RFC Head Coach Rhodri Thomas echoed Everitt’s sentiments.

“We really enjoyed it,” he said. “It’s good to have that quality of coaching coming down and giving us messages that hopefully we can take forward and kick on for the season.

“The boys have been looking forward to this and I think they got a lot from it as well this evening.”

Thomas added, “We asked to focus on certain areas like defence and counter attacking.

“I think they fed into each other, so even when we did the bit at the end with the counter-attacking, we were still able to look at the work that they’d done previously with the breakdown and that sort of defence part.

Sean Everitt chats with the Haddington squad.

“So yes absolutely, the session really covered off what we were looking to achieve.”

The coaching clinic was a valuable opportunity for Haddington RFC to benefit from the expertise of Edinburgh Rugby’s coaching staff, while it also served as a reminder of the importance of grassroots rugby and the vital role it plays in developing talent for the capital club.