Bishops Platinum Blue 2018 full mag crop

BISHOPS RUGBY SINCE 1861
powerhouses of the MLR and to
continue to grow the game here
in the States from grassroots up
through a company called
Atavus.
“The MLR is a start-up league/
company, so there’s a lot of areas
that need to be improved and
will be improved for next season.
“All the conversations are very
positive, however, with two more
teams – New York and Ontario
– joining the league. New York
signed former England player
Ben Foden and Ontario is the
first franchise in Canada – all
of which only adds to the
excitement and potential of
professional rugby here.”
But even in between all his
travelling, Mat still finds time to
give back to Bishops and, as luck
may have it, one such
involvement coincided with
the 2017 Villager Schools
Sevens tournament.
Former Ikey Tigers and
Varsity Cup teammate Wes
Chetty got Mat involved in the
build-up to last year’s event
at Villager and his intervention
might just have played a small
but significant role in the team’s
title-winning efforts.
“I just installed a really basic
gameplan and tried to get all the
players to pick up each other’s
attacking and defensive traits,”
explains Mat.
“The simple points for attack
were: respect the ball, move the
ball and don’t hesitate. The
defensive points were: stay
connected, communicate and
pick your breakdown battles.”
Crucially, however, one bit of
advice from Turner could easily
have been traced back to his own
playing days at school. “The main
thing I told them was just to
Mathew Turner played in 34 Sevens
World Series tournaments, scoring 92
tries for England.
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