Professional rugby union player Ryan Burrows will take over as Barnsley RUFC’s joint head coach next season but he may be in charge of a Yorkshire League Three club after they slipped back into the relegation zone this week.
The Shaw Laners were beaten 27-15 at home against Roundhegians and are now second bottom, two points and one place adrift of safety in Yorskshire League Two. The two sides they can catch, Ripon and West Park Leeds, play each other in the final game of the season tomorrow whereas Barnsley travel to second-placed Leodiensian who have already been promoted but are still hunting the league title. A win is likely to keep them up but Leodiensian have won their last 16.
Director of rugby Mark Smith, who has been acting coach since Adam Bradley left the club mid-season, said: “All we can do is go there in the right frame of mind and back ourselves. They’re obviously in top form and we aren’t but we’ll give it our best.”
Burrows, a 30-year-old from Wath and the nephew of Barnsley coach Mark Smith, is set to take over the first team role at Shaw Lane next season alongside fellow head coach Stephen Roberts who has recently worked with South Yorkshire and Yorkshire representative sides. Ryan is currently at Premiership club Newcastle Falcons, on loan to Doncaster Knights, while he is due to join Coventry next season so will not attend Barnsley games.
He said: “I’ve always had a family connection to the club and know a lot about the place and how ambitious they are. I can’t wait to get cracking and hopefully help the club progress.”
Against Roundhegians, Will O’Loughlin’s unconverted try put the hosts 5-0 up but the visitors raced into a 19-5 lead. Jacob Lawton’s try made it 19-10 at half-time but Roundhegians added a further eight points before Mark Fisher scored a consolation touchdown.
Smith said: “We started off really well and scored a brilliant try then, for the first 30 minutes or so, we carried on where we left off last week. Then Roundhegians got their heads in front and I think the nerves started to show and we weren’t as fluent as we have been. Roundhegians stuck to their plans and carried the ball hard at us so we needed to defend for long periods. Although we kept coming back at them they were always too far in front and we couldn’t get anything out of the game.”
