Sports Editor Isabel Baldwin gets an exclusive interview with First Team Captain Connor Rogers following UBRFC’s triumphant win over Bishop Burton during Engage 2019.

First of all, congratulations on the win. What are your overall views on the performance of the team?

It’s not where we want to be. I think first half we kind of had to defend a lot, we didn’t get a lot of the ball. And then, second half we had the yellow card. But I think towards the end we got the result we wanted and that’s the main thing really.

Picking up on the second half, you didn’t seem to come out with the best start with Burton scoring two successive tries did you? 

No, we really didn’t. We switched off a bit with that [Bishop Burton’s try] in the corner. We thought they were going to take a scrum midfield but they left it and then we had to go down into the corner, and then they just ran it. We weren’t awake and we ended up down two tries straight off.

Coach Tom Drewett looked quite frustrated on the sidelines but was the atmosphere like on the pitch? 

Put it this way, he tells us what he thinks. So at halftime, we got a bit of a shouting at but then after that I think we stabilised a little bit.

Is this win a reflection of your recent form, maintaining your unbeaten run?

Well maybe it is. We have got a few on the bounce to be fair. But not as good a win. We didn’t really perform as well as we wanted to but we got the win. We ground it out.

So you’re currently second with two games left to go?

Yeah, two league games left and a run of cups games. [We’re] Currently in second place, so I think we’ll go up to the top league which will be tough but we’re looking forward to it.

Do you think you can maintain this run for the remainder of the competition?

Well I wouldn’t speak to soon after this performance, but next week we’ve got Edinburgh away which I think could be quite a big game all the way up there.

How do you think this stands you for the future next season?

I think it stands us very well. We’ve got a few boys leaving us, but we’ve got some good, young lads coming in, so I’m feeling quite positive about it. We’ve got a good set up here too, so yeah, I think it’ll be good.

Do you think the first team’s performance is a good reflection of the club overall?

I believe our current position is the best we’ve had in a long while. Normally, we finish around mid-table and we really want to stay second all the way through and get a big five points in the next two games.

And finally, what did you say to the boys before the game? Any words of motivation?

I’m not really the best motivational speaker, so I just said we had to stay focused, keep on the job and sometimes the occasion can overtake and I think we saw that a little bit in the first half. So, just keep calm heads and play our rugby, and in the end we got out result.