THERE is a wave of positivity ahead of a new season at Bournemouth Rugby Club.

This, you might think, is strange after a season which saw the men’s first XV relegated to Regional Two South Central, but following a summer where new owners came in, optimism abounds.

Speaking at the club’s season launch at Rockwater in Branksome, director of rugby Will Croker, who re-joined the club this summer, said he is excited for the season and years to come.

“It's a difficult league to know what to expect coming down from the league above where a lot of clubs were familiar to us,” Croker told the Daily Echo.

(Image: DK Capture Photography)

“This league's sort of split in two, clubs that we've played against historically and a load that we don't know a huge amount about.

“There's a split in terms of the ambitions of the teams in the league, some of them have got playing budgets and are paying the players.

“Some of them have already been pretty successful in the league and will be looking to push on, after Jersey sort of ran away with it last year.

“The likes of Winchester and Tottonians, Guildford, Newbury, they're all quite big clubs with big aspirations.

“So we're trying our hardest to rebuild a new project effectively.”

Croker played down any expectations of an immediate return to Regional One, saying the club is in week nine of a new project and it will take time to bed in, but adding that there was a ‘real buzz’ at training.

“We've got a great group of new players, some old faces that have come out for retirement to help us out,” he said.

“Just to give us a little bit of know-how and help some of the youngsters establish a little bit of experience.

“It's exciting. I think we've targeted top five, [which] would be an okay result for us this season.

“Top three would be great and if we're in a promotion race then that would be fantastic.

“But I think we're all accepting of the fact that it's going to be a tougher league than many people give us credit for.”

(Image: DK Capture Photography)

New chairman of the club, Phil Sinkinson OBE, said he believes Bournemouth will be a really good team, once the team gels together, with lots of new personnel coming in over the summer.

“I know there's pressure from a lot of people to do well in a short period of time,” he said.

“Rugby doesn't work like that.

“The last time we did well with this team, exactly the same team, Will, James [Croker], myself and a few others, it took us about three years to top the league and then get promoted to the national leagues.”

The last time, though, the club lost a large proportion of their players once promoted and then were unable to sustain their place in the national leagues, dropping back down.

But Sinkinson feels something is different about the current project.

“I've got this feeling, I don't know what it is, I can't tell you what it is. It's just I feel on the cusp of something brilliant and I think we will do well, but it will take time for it to bed down," he said. 

“So people have to be a little bit cautious, a little bit less precious, but we will get there.

“I am sure that [we will] grow into the club and the teams that it wants, this area should have a Premiership team.

“I'm not saying that we'll get there under my chairmanship, but certainly over a period of time, I have no doubt that we will grow.”