'A really tight-knit group': Jack Walsh on Tonbridge Juddians' flying start in National One
TJs winger Jack Walsh dotting down against Sale FC
©Gareth Lyons
Tonbridge Juddians (2nd) have been the surprise package of the National One season so far, winning seven of their opening eight matches after managing just 11 victories in 26 games last term.
Jordan Turner-Hall strengthened his TJs squad in the off-season, with one key addition being ex-London Irish winger Jack Walsh, who joined following his time with Cardiff Met in BUCS Super Rugby.
Walsh has hit the ground running, scoring 14 tries so far this season, including five in a remarkable 52-49 victory away at Sale FC in Round Four.
With TJs sitting second, just four points behind league leaders Plymouth, Walsh believes the squad's strong sense of unity has been key to their impressive start to the campaign.
"We have managed to become a really tight-knit group," Walsh tells National League Rugby.
"We're all good mates, constantly having banter on group chats. Everyone wants to be there each training session. Everyone's always fighting for a position.
Of TJs' seven victories this season, Walsh was particularly impressed by the win over Sale, in which the winger also produced a crucial try-saving tackle in the closing moments.
"I'm surprised it [Walsh scoring five tries] was against Sale. If you ask anyone before we played, no one outside of our team thought we'd win.
"We always feel like we step up to the mark when we play against big teams, and Sale is one of them. We knew they were going to be a tough team to face, but we had a really good group buy-in before the game.
"Jordan and Tom White [attack coach] gave me confidence throughout the week. We just threw everything at them and came out on top."
Tonbridge Juddians have been a thrilling watch this season. Aside from their 49-19 victory over Rams at The Slade in Round Seven, their six other wins have been decided by five points or fewer, leading to some tense finishes for supporters.
They have also scored 49 tries in eight matches, averaging 6.1 per game compared with 4.7 last season.
Walsh credits much of his own attacking development, as well as the team's success, to attack coach Tom White.
"I've been with teams in the past where it wasn't necessarily that I wasn't given freedom to play," Walsh explains. "It was more a coach saying, 'we play this way, we want you to play this way', whereas Tom has really given me freedom to play my game.
"There are certain points where I kind of run around like a headless chicken! The way he wants to play is really similar to how I want to play. It's very edge-to-edge, get the ball to me early and see what I can do. I can't do anything if I don't have my hands on the ball."
At 6ft 6in and weighing more than 100kg, Walsh’s combination of pace and power presents a problem that is hard to solve for National One defences.
It is little surprise then that Walsh looked up to George North and Matt Banahan as inspirations for developing his game as a powerful winger.
Walsh began his rugby career at Richmond before joining the London Irish academy. He made three appearances in the Premiership Rugby Cup against Saracens, Bath and Harlequins, and had signed a three-year contract shortly before the club went into administration.
He subsequently moved to Cardiff Met University, where he made 33 appearances across BUCS Super Rugby and the Welsh Premiership for the Archers. Alongside his rugby, Walsh also completed a dissertation on 'Performance Pathways in Rugby Union'.
Reflecting on how his experiences at London Irish and Cardiff Met shaped his development, Walsh believes both environments played an important role in his progression.
"I think what London Irish gave me was a bit of a sniff of what it feels like to be professional, what it feels like to be in that environment, where I need to be at to be in that environment.
"I took complete advantage of it. Coming out of school, you don't know any different.
"Then I went to Cardiff Met, where we had 13 teams at one point. So these coaches, they're not really bothered about just you. You've got to do it yourself. If I didn't want to be there, I didn't have to be there. At Irish, I always wanted to be there, but I also was getting paid to be ther whereas at Cardiff Met, I was paying to be there.
"I became a lot more independent and trained very independently, so that's what really helped me."
Bringing it back to the cut and thrust of National One, TJs’ seven-match winning run was snapped by Birmingham Moseley last weekend in a 35-26 defeat at Billesley Common.
Walsh and co now turn their attention to Saturday's home fixture against Bury St Edmunds (11th), before a challenging run of matches against Rosslyn Park (6th), top four sides Leeds Tykes (4th), Plymouth Albion (1st) and Camborne (3rd) before finishing for Christmas against London Scottish (7th).
Despite last Saturday’s defeat, Walsh is confident his side can respond, with discipline a key area of focus after conceding too many penalties against Moseley.
"Every single game we spoke about it, about discipline. I think our skill level has beaten the amount of penalties we've given away.
"In the first 25 minutes, I think we were down 21-0 [v Moseley]. That, in itself, was hard to come back from, but I feel like this week we're focused on keeping our discipline better and getting onto the next job.
"We're really excited. Nat One is great at the moment because it's really competitive, and there are some great teams in the league. It’ll bring out the best in both teams this weekend and bring out everyone's personalities when they play.
"And, yeah, we'll just train harder and really go for it."
