HAVING given unbeaten Leeds Tykes a scare earlier in the season before gaining revenge on local rivals Wharfedale, it comes as a bit of a surprise to hear Otley head coach Kyle Dench describe his team’s start to the season as a ‘bit of a rollercoaster’.

But three wins and four defeats from seven backs up the argument as Otley seek to find some consistency, starting today at Cross Green for the National Two North visit of Chester.

Dench puts the rollercoaster ride down to a high turnover of players, higher certainly than some of the teams he has seen on the opposite side of the pitch in English rugby’s fourth tier.

“A big thing is that every year we’ve had a lot of changes to our playing group,” said Dench.

Former Doncaster Knights director of rugby Steve Boden has been helping out at Otley, helping to raise standards. (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

placeholder image — Former Doncaster Knights director of rugby Steve Boden has been helping out at Otley, helping to raise standards. (Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

“If you look at the teams that are doing quite well, your Sheffields and Lymms, they’ve kept a lot of players.

“At Lymm (last Saturday) we had four players in the pack and four in the backs who weren’t with us last year, and I don’t want to use it as an excuse, but having those changes whilst being part-time makes it’s tough to implement your game because you’re still working on the minor facets of the game not the bigger bits, you’re not refining things.”

There have been a few ups on the rollercoaster, the 44-31 win over Wharfedale most notably.

“Always nice to beat them,” smiles Dench.

“We needed to right some wrongs after last year against them, they ran us off the park last year, so I’m glad the boys showed up and delivered a performance that day.”

And the involvement of former Doncaster Knights director of rugby Steve Boden, who joined the coaching staff towards the end of last season, has proven invaluable.

“Steve Boden has come in as head of performance and he’s been absolutely fantastic,” said Dench, who played over 100 times for Otley and Harrogate in his playing days.

“He’s been a massive help to me and he’s also driven standards due to the professional environments he’s been involved with.

“At Otley we like to develop players and have them come here as a stepping stone. We don’t have the big budget like some of our rivals do, we want to be a club that invests in our players and helps them get better.

“That’s how Steve came to us. I’d had a conversation with Steve about one of those players and I organised him a job from there and he’s been enjoying it, he feels comfortable. He trusts me and I trust him.

“As a team we’ve come a long way from last year.”