The Wizards were enjoying an encouraging season in the 2019/20 Indigo Group Premiership, with only Cardiff and Carmarthen Quins ahead of them on the points table when the pandemic suddenly brought everything to a shuddering halt.
“It’s been quite frustrating for the players, you really feel for them,” says Hyatt, “They have been out of action for well over 12 months now. We were having a great season, obviously due to covid it came to an end.
“It was really tough on the players as it wasn’t a gradual process, we were playing Llandovery on a Friday evening but the game was called off and from memory, I believe the following Tuesday the season was ended. It was quite brutal, it was obviously for the right reasons, safety first and it was a sound decision which was made and I think everyone understood and backed it.”
With COVID-19 turning the world upside down, the club rugby scene was just one of the many victims to succumb to the pandemic but Hyatt is relieved his team have come out the other side and are ready to rock and roll once again after a lengthy lay-off.
“Myself, personally bar one year, I’ve been involved in rugby since I was six years of age and it was pretty full on and then all of a sudden it came to a grinding halt. As coaches it was probably a little easier because we’re not playing and we’ve had our time as players.
“On the plus side it gave us an excellent amount of time to increase our learning and there were lots of webinars being set up by the WRU and lots of different learning activities which were great opportunities to develop our sort of depth of knowledge.
“I think we coped with it but the players had it rougher because looking back when I was playing you just want to play, you train to play, everything you do is designed around playing on that Saturday and to have that taken away was tough – but in fairness I’m really proud with the way they coped with it.
Flying winger Jay Baker makes a welcome return to Aberavon
“They have all worked hard and it was evident when we came back into training that they’ve used the time away from the game well. We always talk about turning negatives into positives and the players are in great condition and that’s testament to their professionalism.”
Aberavon begin their preparations for the season ahead with a friendly against Premiership outfit Ebbw Vale tomorrow at the Talbot Athletic Ground.
Hyatt is obviously looking forward to the season and is a leading advocate when discussing the quality of player coming through the Premiership. He points to the likes of Dan Biggar, Justin Tipuric, Alun Wyn Jones and Adam Beard as examples of players who have done the hard yards before earning higher recognition with Wales and British & Irish Lions.
“The Premiership provides a vital development tool for professional players – personally, I think the standard is rising all the time. I take my hat off to everyone involved with the Premiership – it doesn’t just fall in our laps at that level. A lot of hard work is involved, and it is a fantastic environment for youngsters to come through and learn,” he says.
“We’re really looking forward to the season ahead and we’re excited to get back on the field and having supporters there will be will be great also,” he says. “We’re very lucky in Aberavon, we’ve got fantastic supporters and everyone is busting a gut to watch rugby again.”
Hyatt has confirmed his squad for the campaign ahead with flanker Joe Tomalin-Reeves continuing as captain.
“We’ve recruited well, we’ve pretty much got a very similar squad to what we ended with and as I said those boys worked really hard at taking the opportunity to work on their physical strength conditioning,” he says.
“During lockdown there was a lot of money spent on home gyms so they’ve come back in really good condition. We’ve been putting the squad together for several seasons and it’s getting stronger each year – I’m just really excited now. We’ve got some real good youngsters coming through which is quite exciting and we have got a nice mix of senior players there to help develop the younger players.
“There is a nice mix and a great energy within the camp at the moment and that has been fuelled by the players energy to get back on the field.”
Aberavon, like every other club in the land, are going into the great unknown as clubs return to action having been side-lined for so long thanks to covid. And while winning games is the obvious objective, the Wizards are hoping to do it with a bit of flamboyance.
“Being honest, as a coach I’ve never really said targets, we want to win every game but you can’t really set a target of winning every game so we always focus on our performance,” he says.
“We look at everything from set piece to key indicators but we’ve got a way of playing, we’ve developed a style at Aberavon which is really successful. It’s a high ball in play time, the players work exceptionally hard to achieve that. They are very fit and that has worked very well for us.
“As coaches in the downtime we have identified areas of our game we want to improve, we’ve tweaked the way we play slightly which isn’t a million miles from what it was before but it’ll help us, I believe. It is always nice to add changes and to evolve and that’s what we’ve done.
“We set high targets and high standards for ourselves as I said fuelled by the players and their desire to play a nice style of rugby and I think everyone enjoys that and I think that is important.
“It’s not just about winning although we want to win every game but we probably want to do it in style as well, we want to play a nice brand of rugby which hopefully people associate now with Aberavon.”
Aberavon squad 2021/22
Fullbacks: Chris Banfield, Cori Lewis-Jenkins, Jonathan Phillips.
Wings: Stefan Andrews, Aled Rees, Matthew Jenkins, Frankie Jones, Jay Baker.
Centres: Will Price, Chay Smith, Rheon James, Logan Phillips.
Halfbacks: Aled Thomas, Joe Gage, Dan Edwards, Rhodri Cole, David Pritchard, Iwan Temblett.
Props: Rowan Jenkins, Rhys Fawcett, Jordan Walters, Geraint James, Chris Davies, Nicky Thomas.
Hookers: Cameron Lewis, Ieuan Davies, Llew Phillips-Taylor, Luke Davies.
Second Rows: Sam Williams, Rhodri Hughes, Shay Smallman, Ben Thomas.
Backrows:Joe Tomalin-Reeves (c), Lee Purnell, Lloyd Evans, Billy Moxey, Ashton Evans, Andrew Waite.
