WITH the departure of head coach Isaiah Graham-Hooper to take up a coaching opportunity in Australia, Minehead Barbarians have moved quickly to secure the talents of Greg Richards.

He will be working alongside established Minehead coach Jack Claydon - initially until the end of this season.

Greg has been a part of the coaching team at Cullompton for several years, and more recently has been lead coach with the highly successful Cullompton Ladies team.

Graham-Hooper has been head coach with the Babas since the beginning of this season. The New Zealander is moving on to Australia where he will be taking up a similar post. He has proved a very popular figure during his short stay with the West Somerset club.

Meanwhile, Minehead Barbarians lst XV were due to play away to Rebels Rugby in Counties Two Somerset at Milverton on Saturday, February 7, but the game was called off not long before the kick off because of a waterlogged pitch.

The Rebels have been playing their matches at Milverton since the beginning of the season, having previously played home games in Taunton.

Only one fixture was played in the division on Saturday because of the atrocious weather with Burnham on Sea beating St Bernadettes Old Boys 56-5. It enabled Burnham to go top of the table - by one point from previous leaders Clevedon, both sides having played the same number of games. Minehead remain third in the table despite not playing, and trail Burnham by ten points but have a game in hand.

Minehead 2nd XV’s match in Minehead versus Bridgwater was called off shortly before kick-off, the referee deciding that the pitch was not playable.

Fortunately, all the players, including those from Llangwym RFC (on tour), who had already played a friendly fixture, were able to retire to the clubhouse and enjoy the International matches on the big screen.