Jacob Ford praises Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club’s choice of James Shanahan of Blackheath for his replacement as director of rugby ahead of 1974 Paris air crash memorial fixture with Guernsey
Outgoing Bury St Edmunds director of rugby Jacob Ford says he ‘can’t speak highly enough’ of the man set to be his replacement while vowing to do his utmost to sign off on a high.
The Greene King IPA Haberden club went public with the news earlier this month that Ford will be leaving his role, having already relinquished the head coach title to player Ben Penfold in the summer, to end four years at the helm.
Little time has been wasted in recruiting his successor with current Blackheath DoR James Shanahan, whose side are currently sixth in the higher-level National League 1 table, set to assume the role heading into the summer.
And Ford, who is looking to move on to be closer to his northern-based family, including England fly-half George Ford and equally well-known father Mike, believes the club will be in great hands with the former Old Albanian and Cambridge coach coming in.
Having decided not to play an active part in his successor’s recruitment, he said: “The club handled that really well in terms of doing a diligent search and going through a full process, which was great.
“But all I can say is I can't speak highly enough of Shanners, he's a great coach who’s got great experience.
“He's got a great track record in terms of the success that he's had at Blackheath and Cambridge Uni as well, where he's coaching.
“I think It'll be great for the club in terms of a project, longer term.
“I think he only lives 20 minutes away from the club, Norfolk way, so everything seems to be a really good fit.
“And everyone can get behind that and look forward to the next season and beyond, to be honest.”
On his impeding departure, Ford, who is still only 26 having become the youngest ever to qualify as an RFU Level 3 coach, said: “I told the club before Christmas that I wouldn't be staying to give them time to get a new coach, recruit a squad and retain players.
“I'm going back up north to where my family is. I've been in this area for about six years now, so it just seemed the right time to move on and attack another project up north, hopefully.
“There's a couple of things potentially lined up, but nothing firmed up yet.”
He described telling the players, at the end of January as ‘emotional’ but believes everyone is now fully focused on improving their current ninth-placed position - not helped by a five-point deduction from a player registration error.
Ahead of hosting eighth-placed Guernsey - the islanders just one point above them - tomorrow in what is the club’s memorial fixture (3pm), he said: “It's important that we finish as high as we can by winning these games to the end of the year.
“We want to finish above this middle pack, as I call it in the league, that’s really important, not just for recruitment and retention but for confidence going into next year.”
Ahead of returning to action, having narrowly lost 38-35 the weekend before last at Worthing, Bury’s players are set to wear black armbands and observe a minute’s silence for the 51st anniversary of the Paris air disaster. The crash on March 3, 1974 killed all 346 people on board, including 18 Bury club members.
