“THERE’S STILL A LOT OF TALENTED GUYS AT THIS LEVEL”
Former Ulster full-back Ricky Andrew enjoying his rugby as player-coach in Div2C with Rainey Old Boys, writes Daire Walsh
FOLLOWING a season-long stint with English Championship outfit Nottingham, former Ulster full-back Ricky Andrew is currently enjoying his player-coach role with Rainey Old Boys in Division 2C of the Ulster Bank League.
With 20 first team appearances during his time with Ulster, Andrew provides a great deal of experience to the Magherafelt club on and off the pitch, and he believes the standard of the domestic league’s fifth tier makes it a competitive division.
“It is still a good standard. They’re quite competitive games, but it’s enjoyable. Sometimes in the professional game, you can be very tired of training every week. If you’re not play week in, week out, you find it quite frustrating,” explained Andrew.
“That’s one of the main reasons why I sort of moved away from professional rugby. I didn’t want to train every week, and not get a chance to play every week. There’s still a lot of talented guys.
“I wasn’t sure at the beginning of the year if that would be the case down as low as 2C or lower, but there’s still a lot of talented guys.”
Before he made the grade in the Pro12 with Ulster, Andrew was a member of the Ballymena club in Co. Antrim, and he feels that the lower divisions of the Ulster Bank League act as a good stepping stone for young players.
“To be honest, I would probably encourage guys who are coming out of schools, if they’re not in the Academies, I would be probably more towards pushing them to go to one of these clubs like Rainey,” said the 26-year-old.
“You’re almost better now going to the clubs, and learning as much as you can off experienced guys that have come down, than going to the likes of 1B clubs or 1A clubs where a lot of Academy and Development players are going to be playing (ahead of you).”
The 2015/16 season was a disappointing one for Rainey, as they were relegated from Division 2B courtesy of a play-off defeat to Wanderers. Yet, Andrew is confident they can make a strong push for promotion this term, and although he isn’t ruling out a return to the professional game, he is happy with his current position at Hatrick Park.
“The same with any team that gets relegated, and they’re looking to get promoted straight away, sometimes that’s difficult. But there’s a lot of good players in and around that squad now, and we definitely could get ourselves promoted.
“My degree was French and Spanish. I’ve always been open to the idea of maybe going away and using the languages, but it would definitely be in a coaching capacity, as well as playing. I don’t think I’d ever say no if a professional club came asking if they needed somebody, but it’s not the first thing in my mind at the moment,” he added.