Belbin appointed Bears Women attack coach

Belbin is a member of the teaching staff at SGS College Fliton in their impressive rugby programme and he is looking forward to working with the talented group of players at the Bears, some of which he has worked with during his time at SGS.

“It’s a really exciting time to be involved with Bristol Bears as an entire club, as well as women’s rugby which is progressing and developing all the time, said Belbin.

“I’ve already worked with a few of the squad who have come through at SGS College and it’ll be good to work with the players who are on international duty with the Under-20s, as well as the experienced internationals in the squad such as Amber Reed, Sarah Bern and Elinor Snowsill.”

Belbin has previously worked with Bears Women’s forwards coach, Jordan Crane at North Bristol RFC and says the coaching group have gelled quickly and already begun to see results in the opening weeks of pre-season.

“As a coaching set up we have all gelled really well, we’ve all got our own niche areas we bring to the coaching team as we look to progress and evolve as a club.

“Our goal is to reach the top four this year and already during pre-season we have put new systems in place that will challenge the girls and push them, while giving them the responsibility to express themselves and do things they may not have necessarily done before.

“We’ve seen results and progression already throughout pre-season, but we know we’ve got to continually challenge and push ourselves not only as a playing group but also as a coaching group if we are to compete at the top end of the TP15s.”