Sunday Mercurys
FACE TO FACE PHIL MAYNARD
(from November 30, 2003)
Birmingham may not have a Premier rugby side, but Phil Maynard is on a mission o put that right on the back of Englands World Cup win. BEN MOTTRAM talks to the coach of the up-and-coming Pertemps Bees
BIRMINGHAM has not boasted a top flight of English rugby for over a decade but Phil Maynard is determined to put that record straight.
The Pertemps Bees director of rugby is currently enjoying his second season in charge at Sharmans Cross Road and has helped to transform he battling part-timers into genuine promotion-chasers.
The charismatic 46-year-old has already tasted success in the West Midlands after coming to prominence when he started the multi-millionaires of Worcester on the roa to the top.
During seven seasons at Six-ways he guided the team to four promotions as they worked upwards from the lower leagues towards the Holy Grail of the Premiership. After masterminding Worcesters incredible rise through the leagues Maynard moved to Stourbridge, before finally securing what he describes as his dream job at Birmingham & Solihull.
With the country currently basking in the glory of World Cup triumph over Australia and the Bees planning a move to a new ground, these are exciting times for rugby fans in Birmingham and Maynard is dreaming of one big triumph on the pitch.
I have always wanted to put a Birmingham rugby club back where they belong in the Premiership. We live in a huge city and we deserve a big rugby club to get behind and support said Maynard.
I was born in Birmingham. This is my home, and I want to put this place firmly on the rugby map that alone is my biggest motivational factor.
When the job at Sharmans Cross Road came up two seasons ago I was utterly delighted because it was like a homecoming for me. I played for Birmingham and was a Colt for Solihull it was simply a job I had always wanted.
Despite working under the constraints of a limited budget the club has some very exciting ideas for the future.
And after the success of England in the World Cup the sport is getting a huge boost t all levels so you never know who might step in and help us hopefully it will be sooner rather than later because we have so much potential here.
This season Pertemps Bees are attempting to become the first Birmingham team to play Premiership rugby since Moseley were relegated in 1991. And now the Bournbrook club have fallen through the National Division One trapdoor, Maynard and his troops are ready to take centre-stage in the city.
My fist priority when I came was to get Moseley out of the way, admitted Maynard.
Traditionally they have been the senior side in the city, but we put over 100 points on the in two games last year which severely damaged them.
We consistently extend the hand of friendship to Moseley to amalgamate and make one club, but they dont seem to be interested in what we have to say so we have to move on, on our own.
With that in mind we have sold the option on this ground and outline planning permission will soon be granted, and that will give us a lot of money to spend on our other ground at Portway.
We are putting the designs for the clubhouse and a 4,000-seater stadium to the management and we could extend it to the required entry criteria for the Premiership very easily.
Its going o be two or three years before we can say we are the best semi-professional club in he country and probably four or five until we will have the right infrastructure and facilities to have a really good crack at the league but were on the right track.
Pertemps Bees have not just enjoyed a stunning start to the National Division One season they have also been crowned cup kings.
Maynards side powered into the fifth round of the Powergen Cup with a tense victory over league rivals Wakefield and can now look forward to a date with a Premiership giant when the draw is made live on Grandstand today.
The cup is all about raising the profile of our club and raising the profile of rugby in this city. Hopefully we will also get a few more people through the games if we get a plum draw at home in the next round, said Maynard.
Its great for Pertemps Bees that for the Pertemps Bees that for the next two moths, until we play the next round, our name will be mentioned alongside the big boys from the Premiership like Wasps, Leeds and Sale.
Clubs like Worcester have dropped out of the cup and I can understand why because I have done it myself.
When I was at Sixways we lost to Cheltenham in the fourth round and people accused me of not caring about it. But they have got to make sure they win the league.
At Birmingham the cup means revenue, and people have to understand we are severely constrained with what we can do at Pertemps Bees.
Not only do we have what is probably the smallest squad in the division, but I would also say we are arguable in the bottom three in what we can pay players.
Our playing budget is around £350,000 a year which is nothing compared with teams like Bristol and Worcester who are spending £2.5 million. Yet we still stand proud in the top three in the division.
Pertemps Bees have been dubbed the dark horses of Nation One after occupying top spot until recent defeats to Orrell and London Welsh. But the success has not come as a surprise to Maynard.
Weve had to whittle the squad down, but the lads we have are more than competent players. When youre a part time club its all about work ethic and the players have to work a lot harder than those who are full time because they have to use their own spare time to stay fit. We only get four to six hours on the training field every week, so you have to be fit and prepared to work hard, he said.
This year we engineered it so we had a very tough pre-season and played team like Edinburgh Reivers and Swansea Neath, but it is because of those games that we hit the floor running.
Despite the flying start to the season Maynard is still adamant that the National Division One title and a place in the Premiership is beyond his team but only for the time being.
There was never any reasonable change of being promoted this year because of the size of the squad we have, he said.
But what we are doing is finally starting o look at teams in this division eye to eye, rather than look up to them.
When we played Orrell and lost our first game of the season we were disappointed not to win and they knew they got very lucky. For a top side like Orrell to spend £1.5 million, be full-time and not take a bonus point off us, and yet we take a point off them they must have been very disappointed.
The nearest Maynard has come to taking a side into the promised land of the top flight was during his years with Worcester, and he still looks back on his time at Sixways with font memories.
I spent some very enjoyable years there, but the year before I left it was obvious that the wheels had come off to a certain extent. Because of some bad recruitment and management it was clear what was going to happen and the end result was that we started losing games and I was powerless to do anything about it, he said.
Les Cusworth (coach) was asked to leave and I was asked if I would carry on until the end of the season.
At the end of that season I said that if I was to stay I would have to have full control of everything, which I originally had when I joined the club. But Cecil Duckworth (chairman) said he didnt think he could give me that because he wanted to be in the decision-making process for the recruitment of players. I was left with no option but to leave.
I think Id done enough at Worcester by that stage and it was the right time to move on. There was a lot of politics going on behind the scenes and I felt I need to go and prove to myself that I could win with other teams and without money.
I moved to Stourbridge and the first season I was there we won the league. We did it without spending the cash, too that was a good cleansing experience for me.
Unfortunately for following year when we needed to spend to stay in the division the club werent prepared to do it that was when the Birmingham job came up.
Maynard joined Worcester from Kings Norton when both teams were still in the Midlands leagues, yet he has always refused to be intimidated by the prospect of pitting his tactical skills and man-management against coaches with Premiership and international experience. So what does Maynard out his success down to?
Knowledge more than anything else. Knowledge of the people, the game and the way things work in rugby circles, he said
Knowing the people in your club is also key. I like big characters in my team people who have got things to say and things to bring to the party both on and off the park. Some people find that difficult to manage but I never have.
And you have got to be confident thats vital. When I stepped into this clubhouse two seasons ago I was confidant that we could beat any side in the division within two years with what we had in place. People would never believe it, but its a fact today.
I always knew we could attract players like Craig Chalmers and Jim Jenner to the club and the Worcester tree of plenty shakes down quite often.
But stable squads are another key to success. You have to back the people you have, put the right people in the right place and trust them to do the job.
The squad we have is getting stronger every week. We train better and the recent defeat against London Welsh was just a blip that was caused because we had problems with injuries.
Pertemps Bees have not been blessed with much luck with injuries in recent weeks with key players, including influential skipper Ed Orgee, picking up knocks and even Maynard has joined the growing injury list.
I broke my ankle about two years ago when I was with Stourbridge and although I had it set it never fixed properly and I hurt it again in training last week. Its not too bad but sums up our luck at the moment, he said.
With Maynards impressive CV you might expect the Premiership big guns to come calling for his services in the next couple of years but the Bees boss has no plans to go anywhere just yet.
The next four of five years should be a very exciting time for rugby in Birmingham and I want to be part of that, he said.
I have always wanted to crack at coaching in the Premiership its been the aim since the outset. But I truly believe I have got a realistic chance at doing that with Pertemps Bees.
