Pre-Season Diaries | Tom Jordan | Week Two

• 7 Sep 2023
• Features

Turning up the heat and bringing new faces into the fold - check in with TJ as week two of pre-season at Scotstoun continues...

The weather this week’s been a nice surprise! I thought summer was done, but it’s been great this week. It’s both a good and bad thing when it comes to training, because the heat does obviously make everything that wee bit tougher. I’m not complaining though – it’s always good to have the sun out!

This week’s been a good week. Everyone came back in on Monday after a good weekend of recovery, we’ve had a few new faces join the group this week and the energy’s been there all week. We’re clicking into gear with our shape in both attack and defence, and it’s all coming together nicely. Everyone’s getting through a lot of work and it’s all paying off.

Kyle [Rowe, pictured below] is back in the group with us now after being in with Scotland over the summer, and it’s been great to get to run about with him for the first time. You can tell straight away he’s a really gifted footballer – he’s got great feet, great pace and just reads the game really well. He’s definitely a good addition to this group and boys are going to be stoked to have him on their outside throughout this season.

We’ve also had a few new boys come in to train this week from the FOSROC Super Series, Andy Stirrat and Ollie Horne from Ayrshire Bulls and Fin Thomson from Watsonians. I’ve played with Andy a bit before down at the Bulls and in here last year, he’s really sharp as a centre. Ollie’s just come over from Australia and he’s come in and given it a good crack this week, too. Everyone’s here with their own individual goals for this season and we’re all keen to help each other improve and succeed. We go out and push each other every session and keep driving on towards the start of the new season.

It’s really important for the season as a whole for us to develop that strength in depth as a squad. As a collective, we want to be a really strong group – it’s about having that full squad mentality. It shouldn’t matter who’s selected for what match, we should all be able to go out, know our role and give everything for this team. It’s crucial that we all put in the hard yards now and keep our standards that high throughout the season.

With a lot of our more experienced boys, and guys who have been there and done it before, away with Scotland, it’s been a good opportunity for guys to step up and help bring newer guys up to speed and answer any questions they might have. For me as a 10 or a 12, too, if I can help anyone out with questions around shape or certain situations in attack or defence, then I’m always happy to help out wherever I can.

Now we’re into September, there’s definitely part of your mind that starts to think ahead and look at the 30^th when Zebre come to visit. We’ve still got another couple of weeks to go until game week, though, so everyone for now is just trying to push forward and put their hands up. From day one, though, we’ve had a clear goal about being ready to hit the ground running, and our pre-season games are important for us to get onto the front foot and sharpen up ahead of the start of the new season.