Tom Watkins has few regrets from a year that saw him secure a historic double for Telford Tigers – and a string of medals on the international scene with Great Britain.
The Tigers head coach was at the helm of a highly-fancied Telford side that swept all before them in 2014/15, winning both the EPL title and British Challenge Cup.
And he also tasted success with GB, winning silver at the world championships as assistant coach of the senior side, and bronze as head coach of the under-20s squad.
Telford have struggled to match their title-winning form on a consistent basis this season, but Watkins remains steadfast in his support of the 2015/16 side.
He said: “Hindsight is a wonderful thing and there’s a few things perhaps, but nothing too majorly different. I like our team and we’ve got a good team spirit.
“We have a good group of guys who are very professional, but massive changes? None.
“Our league and cup success last season was great. We really set a high standard and right now it’s been a bit difficult to follow. One of the major issues has been injuries and we haven’t had a full team all season.
“I think our form hasn’t been good enough and as a team we need to be better in a few areas. But I like the character we’ve got and we have a very good changing room.
“We’ll be working extremely hard over the remainder of the season to get ourselves back into the mix at the top end of the table.”
Watkins’ promotion to assistant coach of the GB senior side, alongside head coach Peter Russell, proved to be a success, after they narrowly missed out on a gold medal in Eindhoven last April.
His first world championships in charge of the under-20s squad, in France at the start of December, ended in a bronze medal – capping a remarkable twelve months for the former Durham youngster.
“Being involved with the team at those tournaments is something I take massive pride in,” he said.
“Working with those players and staff was great and it really has been quite a year.
“Myself and Peter, going in as new coaches of the GB men’s team, I think perhaps in our eyes we over-achieved as coaches.
“We were very disappointed not to achieve gold in our last game, but we’ll learn a few lessons from that.
“With the under-20s recently, I think we were up against it. We’d set an expectation that we wanted to stay in the group, and we were well above that. So I am more than happy with our performances with Great Britain.”
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