Resurgent Avalon hoping for better things this season

Above, the Avalon Senior 1s just prior to kick-off on Saturday against MSP at Evans Bay Park. Avalon won the match 17-9 to register their fourth straight win of 2013.?

There's a long season of tough, hard rugby still to be played, but has Avalon turned the corner?

The early signs are positive. A glance at the lower grades after the opening four rounds of matches shows both Avalon's first and second XVs unbeaten and on top of their points tables. Heading into this Thursday's fifth round set of matches, Avalon are the outright leaders in both the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield and Senior 2 National Mutual Cup competitions.

The club that finished second and hosted a Jubilee Cup semi-final as recently as 2004 playing a terrific brand of electric, counterattacking rugby had been in decline for the best part of several seasons.

They finished as high as fourth in the Swindale Shield in 2006, the last time they made the Jubilee Cup. Clinging on to their Premier status in 2007 and 2008, Avalon were relegated in 2009, promoted again in 2010 (swapping places with Johnsonville) and relegated again in 2011.

Club Rugby caught up with their new co-coach, former Avalon, Hurricanes and All Blacks openside flanker Scott Waldrom, to find out what's in the water at Fraser Park this year.

"The last couple of years have been pretty tough for most people in the club, but we're trying to turn things around", he explained.

"We pushed our pre-season quite hard. We got guys training a bit earlier than they probably did in the past, we had our best numbers at pre-season and so far the results are showing on the field."

The squad is well balanced: "We've got a good mix of young and older guys. We've got at least four players under 20, mixed in with some older guys who have come back and stepped up and who are training a lot harder than they have in the past. Both groups have encouraged each other and it's gelling."

It's not just Avalon's top team playing well. "We've worked hard across the board. We are trying to develop everyone in the club and provide opportunities for as many people as possible. In the past it's been a case of the second tier guys not putting in the effort and cruising along. Now there's some experienced guys in the Senior 2 side that are working hard to try and get up to the top team."

Waldrom is the Avalon forwards coach this year while his good friend from school, Aaron Jones, who played over 100 games for Stokes Valley, is running the backs.

Waldrom said that the good start they've made is already seeing many of Avalon's supporters starting to return.

"They've always been there supporting but in the recent past they've struggled watching the team doing so badly. So the fact we have started off well certainly makes it a lot easier for them to watch.

"It's great to have them there and the crowd at our home games has picked up. Even back in the clubrooms afterwards. It's slowly coming back and for me it's starting to get the look of the old Avalon when I was involved.

"There is certainly some excitement in the club that the team can do well and get back up to Premier rugby."

Waldrom is currently on crutches after a recent operation on a previously broken bone in his foot.

"I've had an operation on a bone I broke in 2006 that broke down and ended up with eight screws in it. As I continued to play over the next six years it deteriorated and I got a lot arthritis in it. So the operation was more of a tidy-up to try and take away the pain and just see where it's at from there.

"Playing-wise I don't where I am. I may return - but I'm rather enjoying my time coaching at the moment."

Waldrom's coaching extends beyond Avalon. The former All Blacks Sevens player has thrown his hat in the ring for the Wellington Sevens job, recently vacated by Earl Va'a who is now the New Zealand Schools coach, while he is currently the assistant coach of the Dutch Women's Sevens team.

"I'm definitely keen to be involved in any Wellington team and I have also put my hand up to be involved in any Wellington age-grade teams as a resource coach."

He said the Dutch gig came about quite randomly. "They were looking for a New Zealand influence on their coaching team, my name was put forward and they rang me up and asked if I was keen. Two weeks later I was on a plane to Amsterdam."

Because of the foot operation he couldn't make the last tournament in China, but he's heading back over there in mid-May for the Dutch team's home IRB Amsterdam Sevens tournament and then staying involved through to the IRB Women's World Cup in Russia at the end of June.

By that time he hopes to have Avalon's top team safely inside the top four of the current Senior 1 competition and into the second round Hardham Cup and in with a shot at promotion back to Premier status for 2014.

A final word about his brother Thomas Waldrom, who made his international debut for England last year?

"He's still playing club rugby for Leicester and still going strong, so it would be hard to get him back over here playing for while yet! Maybe when he has finally had enough of professional rugby over there we may see him back in the Avalon colours again."

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