Skipper Charlie Beckett seeks more consistency at Ampthill

Beckett will be playing in his third season for the club, and his second as captain, since arriving from Gloucester in 2020.

And he’s keen to see improvements on certain areas from the last campaign.

He told the club’s official YouTube channel: “Hopefully there will be a lot more wins this season – we were a little bit inconsistent last season in that we’d have great wins, results and performances and then the next game we’d have a more frustrating performance, or even in games we’d have times where we were great for 60 minutes and then couldn’t finish it off in the last 20.

"So hopefully the work we’re doing now is going to get us over the line in those games and also that we may have a more slightly exciting brand of rugby at times.

"It’ll also be the first season for a while without the Covid protocols so hopefully we can get back to being more the community club again that everyone loves and talks about around here, including getting involved with the women’s and junior sections more often.”

Pre-season training began earlier this month, with new coaches Vincent Koch and Joe Worsley among those overseeing things alongside head coach Paul Turner in the coming season.

Beckett said: “Pre-season doesn’t get any easier but there’s a great buzz around the squad and we’ve got an exciting season coming up so it’s a required torture and puts us in a good place come September.

"The first couple of weeks have gone great. The new boys are integrating really well – we’ve kept the core of the squad and they’ve been brilliant as you’d expect and we’d hope to continue from the success we had at the back end of last season.

"The new coaching team is helping too – we haven’t seen Vincent yet as he’s been with South Africa but Joe’s come in and brought a wealth of knowledge having been at the top of the game as a coach and player so having him involved has been brilliant.

"They’re working us hard but we’ve got to keep the hard work up and capitalise on the good feeling within the group going into the new season."