RUGBY UNION: Oxford home suits Welsh

RUGBY UNION: Oxford home suits Welsh

10:00am Saturday 13th July 2013 in Sport

By Mark Edwards, Sports Editor. Call me on 01865 425451

London Welsh chairman Bleddyn Phillips is flanked by new head coach Justin Burnell (left) and No 2 Gordon Ross at the Kassam Stadium yesterday

Bleddyn Phillips is confident London Welsh’s decision to move to Oxford long-term will reap rewards.

And the Exiles chairman is backing the city to get right behind the team as they embark on a new chapter in their 128-year history.

After suffering relegation from the Aviva Premiership last season, Welsh’s future in the city was up in the air.

A return to Old Deer Park was possible, but they always hoped to stay in Oxford.

And after agreeing a reduced rent with the Kassam Stadium, it’s all systems go ahead of the new campaign, which sees a new coaching team of Justin Burnell and Gordon Ross take the helm.

“It’s a very exciting time for us,” said Phillips.

“I have stated before that now we are in the Championship, we could not sustain or maintain the sort of commercial agreement we had last year, but the stadium has been very co-operative in that respect.

“The agreement is for one year because it would be imprudent to commit long-term at the Kassam Stadium without knowing what level of support we have got.

“Our hope is to build and develop our fan base in Oxford as well as maintaining our traditional base from Old Deer Park.

“If we can do that and it works well, why shouldn’t we carry on here for the long term.”

Welsh averaged 5,090 for home Premiership matches last season, and although that figure will drop because of the lower league they are in, Phillips believes they can still play in front of a decent crowd.

“Of course we would like to fill the stadium, but being more realistic, if we could have gates of 3,500-4,000 initially, that would be a good start,” he said.

“We want to build and maintain what we started in Oxford last year both on the pitch and with our commercial team who are based here.

“If we had gone back to Old Deer Park, I think that would have sent out the wrong message.

“We owed it to the city to stay and hopefully Oxfordshire can recipricate by lending us their support.”

Burnell admitted he was excited about the challenge facing him.

“There is a buzz about the place,” he said. “It’s great to be in Oxford and you only have to look at the stadium and the pitch to see that it’s a tremendous place to be.

“These are exciting times. The players are back and we will all be working hard to try and achieve our aim, which is promotion – although we know how difficult that will be.”

Ross added: “We had terrific support from the people of Oxford last season, and long may that continue.

“It’s great that we are playing here again and hopefully we can give them plenty to shout about.”

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Article source: http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/other-sports/legend-ross-rediscovers-his-hunger-for-the-game.21578069

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RUGBY UNION: Oxford home suits Welsh