By Rory McKee
ARDS Rugby Club head coach Palmer Eccles believes the First XV at Hamilton Park are well equipped to contend for promotion this season.
In his first full season at the helm last year, Portavogie man Eccles helped guide Ards to a third placed Championship 2 finish as well as an appearance in the Junior Shield final at Ravenhill.
After a positive summer on the recruitment front, Eccles is confident the side can go one better this time around.
“We laid a solid foundation last year by finishing third in the league. For four or five seasons before that, the club were fighting relegation and always trying to stay in the division, so to take that step was massive,” he told the Chronicle.
“The fixture list hasn’t been particularly kind to us and we know that Championship 2 is a really competitive league. We’ve got to go to some tough places this year and it isn’t going to be easy.
“But our ambition this year is to finish in the top two. It’s no secret that Championship 1 is where we want to be and I feel we have got the strength in depth to achieve that.”
Ards have bolstered their senior ranks with a total of 14 new players during the off-season. Among them is the versatile Rory Christie, who Eccles feels could well be the man to spearhead Ards’ challenge.
“The players we have brought in are a mixture of youth and experience,” he explained.
“A number of lads have come in from Regent House who got to the quarter-final of the Schools’ Cup last year and some have joined from Queen’s, including Rory Christie who is a super player and has looked really good good in pre-season.
“From what we’ve seen of him so far, we feel that Rory can be a marquee signing for us. He can play in a number of different positions, at 10, on the wing and at 15, which is going to be crucial for us because it’s a long season and absences hit us at times last year.”
Read the full story in this week’s Chronicle.
