Joe ‘Knighted’ by Romans
Bath & Wiltshire Romans, the only Rugby League club in the Wiltshire local authority area, held their awards dinner on Saturday evening at MOD Corsham Officers Mess. This is also their debut season after only setting up the club in January 2015 in preparation to enter the West of England League which kicked off in May 2015.
The season itself has been quite remarkable which has seen the Romans win the first ever West of England Challenge Cup by beating Cheltenham Phoenix 40-10 in the Final and they were also finalists in the first ever West of England 9’s competition.
The Romans management gave out three awards as follows:
Players’ player of the year – Joe Knight
Joe Knight has put in some outstanding performances for the Romans this season after signing from Trowbridge RFC. After starting by playing on the wing, Joe has now found his natural rugby league position and featured regularly at loose forward (13). The Romans have also looked to him for goal kicking duties. Joe has an ability to regularly break the gain line and catch defences unaware which has aided him in becoming one of the teams top try scorers over the course of the season.
Believe it or not Freddy is relatively new to rugby league. However, he is a regular trainer and rarely misses a session. Freddy has made a big impact at prop for the Romans this season and never takes a backward step. His determination from close range has seen him bag a couple of tries this season.
Roman of the year – Chris Chatten
Chris is a founding member of the team which set up the Romans at the turn of the year. He makes sure fixtures are arranged, supports coaching staff at training, on match days and during the week to ensure arrangements are in place to put on a game every week. Chris is already looking for continuous improvement for the remaining events this season but is also now thinking ahead to next season.
The Romans finished top of the West of England league but found out early in the evening that Bristol Sonics had beaten Somerset Vikings in the play-offs for the right to play the Romans in the league Grand Final.
This should prove to be an excellent game for the neutral as the Romans will be seeking revenge against the Sonics after drawing 30-30 in the their away league fixture and losing 32-28 in the return home league fixture. The winner of the West of England Grand Final will go onto play in the Harry Jepson Trophy knock out competition against other regional league Grand Final winners.