Cardigan have parted company with their coaching supremo Colin Horscroft on the eve of the new season citing a lack of money as the reason why they have had to let their popular coach go.
Horscroft the former Newcastle Emlyn and Cardigan hooker had been at the helm for two years and came very close to taking the Cardi’s up last season and will look back at the title showdown at St Clears as a defining moment during his term of office.
Had either flanker Colin Davies or skipper and number eight Llyr Griffiths not been held up on the try line in the final minutes with Cardigan needing one score to beat promotion rivals St Clears in the penultimate game they may well have gone to their final match away at Milford with a totally different attitude.
Horscroft also took his team to the semi final of the National Bowl last April where his troops lost out to Amman United and he will look back with pride as he did a fine job with limited resources.
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peaking exclusively to Sportsline today the very affable rugby man said that he would be sorry to go as he had enjoyed his stint at the King George but matters were out of his hands as basically there is no money to pay him: ”I have had a good time at Cardigan and enjoyed myself both on and off the field and I was always made very welcome.
“ The players were a great bunch to work with and we had some good times but I would have liked to have had one more year in the job.
“ A lot of small clubs are struggling financially these days and Cardigan are no exception and there is no bad feeling as I fully understood their position. I know I can walk into their clubhouse with my head held high at any time in the future.
Club secretary Hefin Harries confirmed that their decision was in no way a reflection of the job he had done and it was for other ‘off field’ reasons and added:
”Colin did a great deal of work with the first team during the two years he was with us whereby we missed out on promotion and reached the semi-final of the National Bowl but sadly we have had to part company due to circumstances off the field of play and our club wish Colin all the very best in the future.
“ He will always be very welcome in our clubhouse and at matches.
Cardigan have arranged a players meeting for this evening (Thursday) to address this problem and it is almost certain that senior players will take over the coaching on a voluntary basis and one of the favourites for the role is experienced number eight Colin Davies.
There are not many with the experience who would be suited to this job and it is going to be a very difficult one as turnouts in training are so far very low and some key players may well be missing for the start of the new campaign. One of these is outstanding centre Marcus Castle who is currently training with Division one side Crymych and he is keen to have a go at the higher level. Influential skipper Llyr Griffiths has increasingly more work and family commitments and may stand down as captain and there are others who have not committed themselves as yet.
Truly difficult times for Cardigan as they have been left behind over the past ten years with Newcastle Emlyn having disappeared over the horizon on to new and more exciting crusades and Crymych too have a bright future ahead and had over 30 training this week.
Cardigan have been fortunate up to now as they still attract big crowds despite the quality of the rugby in division three but that is only because they have been up at the business end of the table chasing promotion and winning most of their games. If they are unable to sustain this and fall off the pace the crowds will get smaller and income will dry up quickly and that could well spell disaster for a club that has a proud history and which is an important heartbeat within the sporting community across all ages. Cardigan RFC have made one very tough decision by letting their coach depart and they are probably going to face plenty of others over the next few months as they cut their cloth accordingly.
