Maidenhead RFC head coach David Mobbs-Smith ‘honoured’ to take on director of rugby role – Photo 1 of 1

Myke Parrott and David Mobbs-Smith at the end of last season

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Maidenhead head coach David Mobbs-Smith has said he’s honoured to have taken on director of rugby responsibilities on top of his current coaching duties.

Mobbs-Smith is set to perform the dual role for Maids as the club looks to once again be a competitive force in the Regional 1 South Central Division. Last season the club finished fifth after a roller-coaster campaign served up many highs but also a few lows. Maids also reached the final of the Papa John’s Cup Plate competition, losing a thrilling final to Macclesfield at Worcester’s Sixways Stadium.

His match-day responsibilities will remain largely the same, and Mobbs-Smith feels the transition from former DOR Myke Parrott will feel reasonably seamless for the men’s first team squad.

Parrott stepped down from the role at the end of this season to spend more time with his family and focus his energies on expanding his IT recruitment business. He’s likely to be a familiar face at Braywick Park though, having recently been awarded honorary lifetime membership for his service to Maids as both a player and director.

Mobbs-Smith has brought an expansive style of play to Maids in recent seasons and hopes to build on that by blooding even more exciting talented players through recruitment from other clubs and progression from Maids’ youth system and second and third teams.

Speaking of his new responsibilities this week, he said: “The role is on top of my head coach role, so there are some more administration parts and I’ll be working with the committee. I’ll continue as head coach so my role on match days will remain the same. I’m honoured to be doing this joint role, they do dovetail well together and it’s quite normal now to have a director of rugby that is also the head coach. I’ll be a little more involved in the behind the scenes, the recruitment, the day-to-day management of the club, the connections with the youth and the seniors. That’s a more substantial part of the director of rugby role than a head coach, but I was already doing those things unofficially anyway.

“Naturally, I’m a very different person to Myke, so I’m going to manage things differently. I’m a different character to him and I have different connections to him, and I’ll run the job very differently, but because I was already in the head coach role, there should be a seamless crossover, especially where the first team players are involved.”

He added: “My philosophy is still to push through youngsters from the club, still going to look for exciting young players elsewhere and at the same time, bring through the odd senior player.

“We’ve lost some senior players in Will Macaulay, Elio Mandozzi and Grimshaw, so we must replace those players to remain competitive in that league. We’re working very hard to get that to fall into place.”

Maids’ first team players are set to return for pre-season training at the end of this month with pre-season matches planned against Colchester away on August 12 and Wimborne at home on August 19. The league season is set to kick off on Saturday, September 2.

Mobbs-Smith added: “The league will be very competitive and with Marlborough coming across – who didn’t lose a single game last year – they’re going to be another very strong team.

“It’s going to be as tough, if not even tougher than last year, but we can’t wait for it.”