Someone who has been looking forward to the new rugby season more than most at Narberth is Sean Gale, who is head coach of the Otters and is charged with the responsibility of keeping them in the championship section of the WRU set–up.
Sean has a wealth of experience as a player with Llanelli and Bridgend, one season at Tenby United and then three years back at Parc-y-Scarlets when the Welsh regions were formulated and became a professional player with the Scarlets.
It’s a similar story with his coaching because Sean cut his teeth as player/coach at Tumble and then went back to Llanelli alongside Scott Quinnell and Neal Boobyer, with the highlight being a 25-24 win over Bridgend in the Welsh Cup.
Made welcome from the start
But for the past eight seasons Sean has worked closely with Narberth’s director of coaching Jonathan Dodd and been heavily involved with the Otters.
“I was made very welcome by the players and especially the supporters at the Lewis Lloyd Ground, and it is one of the reasons why I have stayed so long; plus the fact that we have managed to keep doing well, despite some of the so-called bigger clubs having such a much bigger budget.”
“We managed to stay in the top three for most of these seasons. We beat Pontypool on one occasion in the Welsh Cup and were only just pipped in gaining a place in the Premier Section a couple of seasons ago.”
Following in father’s footsteps
That Sean should be so involved in rugby was perhaps only natural because his father Norman was a Llanelli player of some repute who played hooker for Wales on 25 occasions, two of them as captain. Then the Gale family had a pub near Stradey Park and Sean made his first team debut for the Scarlets when he was only 18 as he played against Pontarddulais in the Welsh Cup.
He was also chosen for the Welsh Secondary Schools and is rightly proud of the fact that he played for Wales against a New Zealand Schools team coached by Graham Henry – and of being one of the very few Welsh youngsters who played in a team to beat the All Blacks as they won 12-9.
Huge experience at top level
Sean played 209 times for Llanelli and one of the undoubted highlights was playing for the Scarlets against New Zealand – although this time there was no fairy-tale result as the All Blacks scored over 80 points.
Then he played 95 times for Bridgend as he enjoyed himself at the Brewery Field before a season where he joined Julian Williams and Andrew Taffetsauffer at Heywood Lane.
After his return to the Scarlets he suffered a dislocated knee on several occasions and finally decided enough was enough on the playing front after his stint at Tumble.
He soon settled into a new role back with Llanelli as he coached the Scarlet Academy for three years and after gaining his Level Three coaching badge enjoyed his spell with Messrs Quinnell and Boobyer with the Llanelli squad in the Welsh Premiership.
Different challenges now
That brings us full circle, back to Narberth where this new season threw up its different challenges from the outset since the Otters lost eight experienced players who joined other clubs, most in the Premiership.
“Jonathan (Dodds) and I have been delighted by our new recruits in training and in our early practice matches against Swansea and Llanelli,” said Sean. “We have been joined by Tomi Jones and Dylan Richards from Whitland and Ianto Griffiths is a useful asset with experience ‘up the line’. Stuart Warrell and Adam Clarke are other useful acquisitions and we have talented youngsters like Osian Lloyd and Owen Jordan in the pipeline.”
Family focus
Another youngster eager to shine at the Lewis Lloyd Ground is Sean’s son Nick, who can play full-back or in the three quarter line.
Sean also has a daughter, Hannah, and says that Elizabeth, his wife of 23 years, has been ultra-supportive in all he has done in rugby. Outside of his involvement at Narberth he enjoys keeping fit but has little time for other sports because of his work in the Fire Brigade at Morriston.
Working relationship
A vital component of his involvement at Narberth is his working relationship with Jonathan Dodd, who told us,
“Sean and I are usually on the same wavelength over rugby matters and there is no doubt that he knows his stuff, especially with regard to the forwards, where he has immense experience as a player. I think we are very lucky to have him as head coach.”
“We made a good start to the season against Llanelli and Swansea,” says Sean, “and although we lost both games it certainly helped us gauge the strength of our squad.
“Our campaign in the Championship has also been good, especially the win against Pontypool, which showed what we can do.”
So now it is all systems go at the Lewis Lloyd Grounds and we wish Sean Gale and his boys a very successful season of rugby in the Welsh Championship League!