HAMMERSLEY HOPING TO SEIZE OPPORTUNITIES THIS SEASON
Forming part of the Falcons squad taking on Bayonne in France, emerging talent Simon Hammersely has made an excellent start to his pre-season, showing plenty of promise along with his team mates in the group stage of the Premiership Rugby 7s series.
On an evening filled with plaudits for the whole squad, Hammersley’s first outing as a full time member of the playing set up at Kingston Park did nothing but enhance his reputation as a talent to watch for the future.
The rangy 21 year old economics graduate was in fine form with a number of elegant runs from deep puncturing the opposition lines as well as getting his name on the score-sheet with a try in the 27 – 7 defeat of Sale Sharks.
In what has been seen as a big success by both the Falcons and the hosts Darlington Mowden Park, Hammersley himself was thrilled to see the 7,057 fans that came through the gates in attendance.
“It was great to have the 7s up here in the North East and to give home fans a good event to watch. Darlington Mowden Park is a big stadium with great facilities and on the night we had a good crowd with a lot of fans coming down.”
“There was a big crowd and commotion, you had the cheerleaders and a party atmosphere. It was nice to have that atmosphere as it’s very different to Premiership games, although you do have to try and isolate yourself from all of that before the games.”
“7s is a bit different to normal rugby and hopefully any new faces in the 7000 people found it very entertaining and will now give some thought to coming along to a full Falcons game.”
On the evidence of his contribution to Saturday’s group win, blocking out the distractions was something the fullback managed well and allowed him to continue to impress those watching as he looks to make this season a breakthrough year.
“It’s been a real change going from being a student to full time training so far so it’s be nice to hear some of the comments from the supporters and hopefully have made a good impression.”
“In a way, it’s fortunate that my first action of the season was in the 7s. When you get out onto the pitch it really is about playing heads up rugby and using the space to express yourself and play what’s in front of you, which is one of my strengths.”
Playing to these strengths means Hammersley will miss out on finals day however he is confident those included can give a strong showing at this Friday’s finals night as the look to repeat the club’s victory in 2011.
“Friday should be another good night and we should get a good crowd there with it being so close to Twickenham.”
“We’ll have to work hard of course but we have a strong side and some great players – TC and Andy Davies will be pulling the strings in the middle and we have a physical edge to the team which was quite effective in Darlington.
We will also have Craig Willis, who is definitely hoping to impress, and Sean Brown who’s deadly on the wing so we should have a good chance of doing something at the Stoop.”
