A former player at the club, he led the Steelmen back into the top flight after four seasons of winning Division 1 and the Championship and set them on a course to be crowned Premiership champions under the stewardship of Nigel Davies in 2016.
By then Strange, a former Wales A outside half who once sat on the senior international side’s replacement bench in 2000, had graduated to the WRU coaching staff and was in charge of the Wales U20 side. From there he moved to Cardiff Blues as backs coach and for the past four years he has been a specialist skills and kicking coach with Super League champions St Helens.
Given the upward trajectory in his professional coaching life, what’s the attraction of attempting to turn around the fortunes of a team that was in the bottom half of the Indigo Prem last season?
“Ebbw Vale is the first club that gave me an opportunity as a player. I joined when I was 15 and at 18 they sent me to New Zealand to play at the Tokoroa club to help me improve my game,” said Strange.
“Those are the kind of things you never forget. This is my town; my team and I have a 30-year association with the club. I want to give something back and help not only the players and the club, but also the town.
“It is also a club with similar values to myself and I have a lot of faith and trust in the chairman, Jon Jones. In the end, all we want to do is make the supporters proud.”
The team certainly did that last week when they headed to the Talbot Athletic Ground and notched a famous victory over then top-of-the-table Aberavon. The 24-17 triumph showed Strange he is making a difference, filled the players with pride and belief and moved the Steelmen up to fifth in the table.
“When I took over in 2010, we had just been relegated and there were only six players left. When I returned for my second stint, we had 35 players on the books at the end of last season and we got rid of 28 of them,” added Strange.
Ebbw Vale head coach Jason Strange is hoping to revitalise not only the players and the club, but also the town. (Pic: Curtis Thomas)
“We needed a major restructuring job to try to take down the age profile of the squad. We scoured the local area, and we brought in 29 new players to freshen things up.
“It was a huge turn-over of players, but it needed to be done. Whenever you give youngsters an opportunity at either professional or semi-professional level, they always trust you a lot more.
“As a coach, you have to put your faith in them to get them to put their faith in you. My job is to try to get some of the players who have been discarded from regional academies back up to speed to return to the professional game.
“Evan Lloyd and Carrick McDonough are classic examples of players who just need a bit more time, a bit more nurturing, a bit more encouragement to make the grade. If I can’t help them get back into the professional arena within 18 months, then I will have failed them.
“What we’ve introduced at the club since I returned are higher standards and higher expectations across the board. We don’t have the same financial clout as many of the other teams in the Premiership, so we have to make up for that by working harder, committing to each other and trying to improve with every game and every training session.”
So far, so good! With four wins out of their seven games, and two of the three defeats coming on the road by a point at Cardiff and two points at Bridgend, the Steelmen have already put themselves in contention for the title of most improved team of the season.
The dream for Strange would be for a team of local talent to be able to represent their community in a Premiership that acts as a proper stepping-stone towards the regional game. To do that, he believes the clubs should be the hub of the academies, shared with moving players upwards when they are deemed ready after cutting their teeth in the Premiership.
“What I’ve learned most over the past four years working at St Helens is that culture is so important, and you have to get the right people in the building to move forward. That is the same for an amateur, semi-pro or fully professional club,” he added.
“St Helens have a very clear ideology and identity and set the highest of standards. Winning is expected. They are at the top of a properly constructed playing pyramid within their community that moves players upwards from junior sections of clubs, the schools and then youth and senior sections of clubs.
“They value the grass roots, nurture them and reap the rewards as a result. I would say I’ve progressed 50 or 60% as a coach during my four years at the club.
“In a strange way, getting the sack at Cardiff Blues was the best thing that could have happened to me. It gave me the chance to broaden my horizons and I’ve learned that I’m probably better suited to being a head coach than an assistant.
“When you are an assistant coach, it can be very difficult to try to change things that you believe aren’t working. That can become very frustrating, although in the right environment it can still work.
“I just love coaching and trying to get the best out of people, whether it’s in rugby union or rugby league, whether it is with amateur, semi-pro or professional players.”
Evan Lloyd is one of the players Jason Strange is trying to get back into the regional game. (Pic: Simon Latham)
He’s certainly bringing the best out of the players he has brought into the club this season and is revelling in polishing what he calls his “rough diamonds”. When he first played at the club, he was involved in the two games against Toulouse in the Heineken Cup in the 1998-99 season that epitomised the fortunes and capabilities of the Steelmen.
“We went down to Toulouse in early September as a largely amateur or semi-pro team and had to face one of the giants of Europe professional rugby. It was 30 degrees at the time, and we lost 108-16,” recalled Strange.
“I played at full back in the first game and then at outside half in the return fixture. I can remember Mark Jones telling the Toulouse player to remember to bring their wellies with them when they came to Eugene Cross Park because it wasn’t going to be anything like it was in the south of France.
“How right he was. It was freezing cold, there was snow all over the place and we went on to beat them 19-11. What a turn-around that was!
“When you go through the team that represented Ebbw Vale that day, the majority of them were from within a seven-mile radius of the ground. I love that feeling of being part of a community and representing your town.
“When you look at the Premiership, and to some extent the WRU Championship, wouldn’t it be great to get back to that sense of local identity. That’s what the Premiership can do if it is given the right support and is given greater value and purpose.
“It is a good competition now, but it could become so much better with more clarity, collaboration and direction. I believe it is vitally important to the future well-being of Welsh rugby.”
As well as watching his Ebbw Vale players develop, Strange always takes pride in seeing how many of the Wales U20 players he coached over his five-year period with the age grade team, four as head coach, have since made the grade to senior level.
This article appears to today’s Wales v Georgia match programme
