After a seventh place finish in National League One last season, changes needed to be made if Blackheath Rugby Club were to make a push for promotion to the Championship.
Come the start of the season and things were looking up for the club. James Shanahan, head coach of Cambridge University and formerly Old Albanians, had been appointed as the new head coach and an influx of players signed, ensuring Blackheath had the capabilities to challenge for the National League One title.
Flying Start
Blackheath got off to a brilliant start after seven wins in their first eight games, a run that included a bonus point, 32-31 victory against another title challenger in Plymouth Albion in the season opener.
Unfortunately, fatigue began to get the better of the squad as other teams began to find their feet and Blackheath began to slowly slip down the league table. However, with seven games left, Blackheath sit in fifth place and have shown a great amount of promise according to head coach Shanahan: “It’s been frustrating, we know when we play to our potential we are a real handful, we are the only side to have beaten the top four but unfortunately underperformed in other games”
Positives And Negatives
Fifth place in the division is no small feat. With only one place available for promotion to the second tier of English rugby, every team is fighting for every last point. With Coventry only losing one of their 23 games, that loss coming at the hands of Blackheath, they sit 26 points ahead of next best Darlington Mowden Park and look to have promotion all but wrapped up, leaving the rest of the teams to fight it out for second place and gather as much momentum as possible going into next season.
Shanahan is still focused on what Blackheath can achieve this season: “It’s not about next season it’s about finishing strong for this season. After having such a good start with seven wins from our first eight games it’s disappointing we couldn’t kick on. But if we can get on a run now then top four would be a good achievement.”
“I’d say I’m disappointed that we didn’t stay in the top three so fifth is about acceptable after the start we had. If we finish fourth, I think we as a group will be happy but we know we could of done more.”
Adapting To A New Club
Shanahan is no stranger to coaching at a team with great history. Despite being head coach at Blackheath, Shanahan also coaches both Cambridge University and English Counties, as well as spending six years at Old Albanians earning promotion in the process.
Shanahan’s experience allows him to put the pressures of coaching a club with such rich history to one side: “I don’t really feel any added pressure working here, I really appreciate the history of the club and that’s something I acknowledge. I’m very lucky to be part of two clubs that are known worldwide.”
Promotion is on the cards for next season, and Shanahan was keen put the fears that it could damage the club financially to rest, “We would get £550,000 funding from RFU and we would never go full-time so for me it would help the club. A bit like it’s helped Richmond (currently sitting ninth in the Championship), a part-time side not throwing cash around and being very competitive.”
A strong end to this season and fans will be very confident that with Coventry out of the equation, Blackheath could be on the verge of returning to where they rightly belong.
