New Portsmouth RFC head coach Wake: Rebuilding the squad was never my intention

Wake was appointed head coach at Rugby Camp last May, with Chris Jones and Dan Roberts assisting him.

That was after Gareth Richards had stepped down following a disappointing 2021/22 London 3 South West campaign.

Portsmouth won only five of their 22 games, losing all the others, and finished third bottom. They would have finished second bottom had Old Cranleighans not been docked 15 points due to non-fulfilment of fixtures.

However, Wake said overhauling the squad was never on his agenda.

‘It was important for me to retain the players that were here last year,’ he told The News. ‘It wouldn’t have felt right to bring in players from other clubs I’d worked with.

‘Portsmouth has got a strong identity and it was much more important for me to retain the players we had and work with them, rather than trying to recruit new ones.’

Wake added: ‘I wasn’t here last season so it would be remiss of me to comment on it - I had a sabbatical, I didn’t even watch many games. I don’t really know (what went wrong), if I knew it would be a quick fix for me.

‘But I’ve been in that position at US (Portsmouth) - you’ve done well for a couple of years and then you have a poor start, lose a couple of games, and then the season unravels and you’re powerless to stop it really.’

Last season, Portsmouth suffered close defeats in their opening two league games - losing by four points to Andover and just two to Trojans.

In contrast, last Saturday they lifted the curtain on a new Hampshire 1 campaign - the RFU have revamped the league structure this year - with an 11-10 success at Trojans, Portsmouth’s first away league win since January 2020.

‘Their first two games were very close last year, they lost both late on, but they could have gone either way,’ said Wake. ‘Same as last Saturday, but that went for us thankfully. But when you lose a couple, you’re on the back foot.’

There’s some new names on Portsmouth’s fixture list in 2022/23, including Winchester and Eastleigh who were playing a league higher last term.

There will also be a cross-channel trip to Jersey, while Wake expects Havant’s newly-promoted 2nd XV to be strong.

Gosport & Fareham, also promoted last year after finishing runners-up to Havant 2nds in the Hampshire Premier, provide another new test, while Petersfield, Andover, Alton and Basingstoke remain on Portsmouth’s fixture list.

‘It looks like being a really competitive league, there’s some strong teams there,’ said Wake. ‘It’s not going to be easy by any stretch, but I expect us to be competitive

Portsmouth certainly enjoyed a good pre-season, with wins against Bognor - under lights at Havant RFC - and higher tier Tottonians.

‘We played really, really well against Totts,’ recalled Wake. ‘Really well. There’s no such thing in rugby as a friendly, and we deserved it.’

This weekend provides a stern examination, at home to a Petersfield side who only missed out on winning the London SW 3 title last term on points difference.

Portsmouth were drubbed 48-19 at Rugby Camp by Petersfield, and also lost 26-0 away.

Petersfield drew 29-29 with Basingstoke in their curtain-raiser last weekend.