HELENSBURGH Rugby Club head coach David Calderwood admits he didn’t plan on going into coaching after his playing career, but after filling in for Adam Hart last season he caught the bug.

Calderwood took over the Ardencaple hotseat from Hart after the Grizzlies’ season concluded last month.

He was a long-serving Burgh player, but he insists coaching the club was never on his agenda, until Hart underwent a hernia operation last year and asked Calderwood to take training.

After enjoying that experience he says when he heard the news of Hart stepping down, he immediately began mentally planning his pre-season with the players in the hope he got the nod to take over.

He said: “I never really said anything for a couple of weeks after Adam had stepped down. Because I had coached a bit during last season when Adam had his hernia op, I was thinking back then I might want to do it and I started planning pre-season in my head.

“That kind of told me that it was what I wanted to do, and then it was just if I could commit to the whole season and fit it around my work, as it is a big commitment. It was something I could do and wanted to do so I contacted Mike [Linzee-Gordon] soon after and said I would be available to do it if you want me to.”

Calderwood admitted the size of the Grizzlies squad compared to other teams was an issue last year. Although he concedes there isn’t much he can do to change that, he is confident the squad will be in better shape next season with plenty of time to bulk up in the gym.

He said: “You can’t do anything about the size of player we’ve got. There’s a good bunch of guys who are still going and training up on a Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays and hitting the weights, the guys have a good long period off as normally we’re playing into April but we’ve finished in March.

“We’ve got a long period off this year so hopefully this will help some of them get a wee bit bigger and then it gives us a longer pre-season to get them conditioned.”