Mayfield will have a Fijian flavour for the first time since the Raulini brothers graced the ground as Dundee HSFP step up their efforts to return to the BT Premiership with a new head coach.
Dundonian Colin Sangster, who has coached at international age-group level and took Caithness from a rugby backwater into a National League club with four promotions in just six years, has taken over the reins from Colin Robertson with the aim of finishing the rebuilding job of the last two years.
High are again in National League One after finishing fifth last year, and the young side that flirted with promotion for much of the season are back with some new recruits from the army base at Leuchars for the new season, which begins at home to old rivals Aberdeen Grammar at Mayfield on Saturday (ko 2pm).
Four Fijians players from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, 2 CS Battalion REME and 110 Provost Company now stationed in Fife have been at pre-season training, and Mayfield diehards will be hoping they have the same impact as Jacob and Moses Raulini, the Fijian internationals who played for the club in the 1990s.
“There are going to be times when they’re not available to us because of service requirements but we’re delighted to have them,” said new coach Sangster.
“They’ve been heavily involved in pre-season and we want to have as good a relationship with the base as possible, so they’ll all definitely be made welcome here.”
Sangster was brought up and schooled in Dundee but has spent the last 30 years in Caithness, where he helped run a family business and was latterly the area rugby development officer and coach of the Vikings.
“We had a good few seasons there, with four promotions and we got to National League Two at one point,” he said.
“But with only two schools feeding the team, that was really as far as the club could get and I was always keen to test myself at a higher level rugby club on a week-to-week basis.”
Colin’s son played for High last year while on an accountancy apprenticeship in Dundee and he watched the club three or four times before deciding to apply for the head coaching job when Robertson announced he was leaving.
“When the Dundee job came up it just felt like the right fit, I have family down here as well and the time was right for us to move back south, so it was good all round,” he said.
Sangster brought several players from junior level through to international age-group rugby at Caithness, coached Scotland Under-18 and the Caledonia Under-18s for a number of years, so he’s well used to dealing with a young squad like High have.
“Most of the team from last year are still here, and the younger boys are a year older and a year more experienced.
“We’ve still got the backbone of guys like Alan Brown, who is club captain again, and Andy Dymock.
“There’s a couple of new faces in Neil Herron from Glasgow Hawks, and Peter Redmayne, whose brother Andy played here and has been on the Glasgow Warriors staff. We lost a couple as well but I feel very positive about the season, we’ve had a strong pre-season and fitness is good, and their gradually getting to grips with the style of play that I want to introduce.”
In addition, the High School’s new director of rugby, former Scotland, Edinburgh and Newcastle fly-half Phil Godman, is helping out the FP club on occasion.
“Phil’s been to a couple of sessions and I’m very keen for him to pass on his experience of playing at international and professional level,” added Colin.
Sangster is keen to maintain the close ties with Dundee University, an outstanding source of quality players down the years for the club, but also the other clubs in the city and in Tayside.
“We want good relationships with all the clubs, yes to encourage their best talent to play at the top level in the city, but we need to give them something in return,” he said.
“It’s no use it being a one-way street.”