Fly-half Ben Penfold appointed head coach at Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club to work alongside director of rugby Jacob Ford

Jacob Ford hopes handing over his head coach title at Bury St Edmunds to player-coach Ben Penfold can bring a ‘renewed freshness’ to spur the Wolfpack to greater heights.

The Haberden club had separated the roles of director of rugby (DoR)and head coach until Nick Wakley ended up combining both during the Covid-affected seasons.

Ford’s appointment was initially as head coach in March 2021 to work alongside the Welshman, who remained as DoR until leaving Suffolk that July, after the resumption of community rugby post-Covid.

Both roles have been under Ford’s remit ever since, but he has now decided the time is right to share the burden with his trusted lieutenant Penfold who had assumed an assistant coach role last season alongside his player duties. It comes after the 29-year-old has also spent the past two years working alongside him at Ipswich School as assistant head of rugby.

Ford said: “Ben Penfold has been promoted to a head coach role and I’ll just be director of rugby.

“It won’t be too dissimilar, I’ll still pick the team and plan training and that kind of stuff, but Penny’s going to lead on the coaching side of it and we’re looking forward to being the ying-and-yang, if you like.”

Explaining the rationale for the change, following their sixth-placed finish in National League 2 East last term, he said: "I just think with the direction we're going in with the new players and the standard of play we're bringing in, the amount of stuff that goes in off field around the coaching is arguably more than the head coaching role. So I just feel like it's best we can work together and we'll get the best out of each other.

“It will help us not miss anything and we can have a bit of ownership in certain areas and challenge each other as well as working together to achieve the things we want to.

"I feel like it's a better structure and one that I've got to a stage now where I trust him immensely with how we play and what we want to do. He understands what we're about.

"I think it's almost a renewed element of freshness while keeping the same continuity, I think that's important and we're looking forward to putting that in place."

Penfold, who initially joined from higher-league Cambridge three years ago as a player-backs coach, is relishing the extra responsibility which will mean the fly-half will now only take to the field in an emergency situation.

“Last year we were forced into playing me a little more than we anticipated and it’s probably right for the team to have two pairs of off-field eyes and obviously coaching is a long-term thing for me so I’m really excited about it,” he said.

“Having another different voice you’re not playing with is always a good thing in my experience, as long as they are all aligned which I think Jacob and myself definitely are.”

Bury are set to return to pre-season training on July 2.