VIV Wooley is the new coach co-ordinator at Luctonians Rugby Club.
Wooley ended his two-year reign as first-team head coach after Luctonians’ victory in the North Midlands Cup final at Stourbridge.
He is now setting up a new coaching system for the north Herefordshire club.
“We have been out to a few Premiership clubs and have come back with plans for restructuring the coaching set-up so that the younger element of the players can have the opportunity to have better coaching,” said Wooley, the former Gloucester flanker.
Wooley said his new role at Luctonians would involve co-ordinating the coaches for the first team, second team and a new development XV.
"We won’t actually have a head coach but we will have two coaches for the first team, two for the second team and two for the development side who will work alongside specialist coaches that we will be bringing in from bigger clubs,” he said.
“We will definitely have Bob Phillips, the former Gloucester and Pontypool front-row forward, coming in once a fortnight for technical bits.”
Luctonians’ spokesman Dave Thomas, said he was delighted that Wooley had agreed to remain with the club.
“Viv has done a lot for our club and his thoughts and ideas for the future are going to be very welcome and valuable for Luctonians’ progress,” said Thomas.
“We are re-focusing and re-organsing and want to build a core of coaches to turn Luctonians into a centre of coaching excellence. While we have been looking at getting the business side of Luctonians right, we have taken our eye off the rugby ball.”
Thomas said his own director of rugby position at the club is being dissolved and he would be a committee member with a specialist interest in rugby.
"Viv will be the coach co-ordinator and overseeing everything and Simon Green-Price will be right in the heart of it and focusing on development," said Thomas.
Thomas looked ahead to next season’s 26-match National 3 Midlands campaign.
“We need a bigger squad because it’s an evenly-matched league and there are some very tough matches, “ said Thomas.
“We will have more league matches and that will inevitably lead to more injuries. It looks like we could be playing Sheffield Tigers next season because Chester want to move out of the Midlands section to join the Northern section.”
Thomas added: “We want to build a pathway for children from the age of seven years old through to the first team.
“It is a five-year plan and it will be interesting to see how far we get down our visionary road.”
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