Phil Maynard goes professional

By Elliott Josypenko
September 11 2005

Phil Maynard has accepted a full-time contract as Pertemps Bees' director of rugby.

For the past ten years Maynard has tried to balance his rugby commitments with his 'proper' job as an automotive electrician but he now decided that he can no longer balance the two.
He rejected the chance to move into rugby full-time when he was head coach of Worcester and has spent a year pondering his future since the Bees first offered him a a full-time contract.
"It's been a difficult decision to make because I went into partnership in the motor business about 20 years ago and, once you have built up a business, it's difficult to let go," Maynard said.
"But in recent years I have found it very difficult to combine the day job with rugby. I'm fed up of working from 8am to 11pm and having very few free weekends.
"Rugby is demanding more and more of my time and there is a huge job to do at the club which I won't be able to do if I continue working in the motor industry.
"It's no secret that I've been thinking of going full-time for quite some time now. I had the chance when I was at Worcester but I didn't feel that the circumstances or timing were right.
"But National One rugby has moved on apace since then and if the Bees are to progress it's important that we have a full-time director of rugby to oversee developments."
By concentrating on rugby Maynard hopes to be able to spend more time on preparing his side for matches, scouting for new talent and tapping into sources of fuding to help develop the club off the pitch.
"It's a huge job and it will still be time consuming," Maynard said. "At the moment I don't have time for detailed video analysis of opponents and I don't get the time to do the scouting that other directors of rugby in this division do.
"Going full-time will give me the chance to do those things. But there is also a big job to be done on securing funding for the club. There is a lot of money available to clubs that we need to tap into.
"Hopefully my decision to go full-time will benefit the club on and off the pitch."