THORNBURY RFC chairman Michael Tinney believes the club can build on the legacy of former head coach Gareth Llewellyn and reach the top three of the Tribute South West One West next season.

Indeed, he said the coaching team have already met with the club to target the 2015/16 campaign as the one where they can ‘step up’ and go for glory.

Thornbury are gearing up for their opening clash on September 5 away at Bideford, having tackled Old Patiseans last Saturday.

Now, with former Bristol centre Rob Higgitt in charge after Llewellyn left the club to move back to join his old team Neath in Wales, Tinney is optimistic the momentum of six years under Llewellyn can be continued.

They have recruited Wayne Thompson, an ex-Thornbury ace, and Welsh international lock Ollie Kohn, fresh from a playing career the Aviva Premiership with Harlequins, to assist Higgitt.

Irishman Tinney, who hails from Londonderry, said: “It was good that Gareth had already left in place a very good structure in terms of coaching and certainly the meetings we have had with Rob as the new head coach, he has been emphasised that he wants to continue in the same vein.

“Connections through Rob has opened up to additional coaching through Ollie Kohn and we have been able to attract back some old Thornbury players who have gone onto coaching careers in their own right.

“Wayne Thompson is putting in an extra day coaching with us while still playing at Hartbury and wants to use this opportunity to maintain his coaching, and also we have brought back Darren Yapp, who went onto play for Bristol and Connacht from Thornbury, to take on the strategic role of developing squads from juniors into seniors.”

Thornbury enjoyed one of their best seasons ever last year in the league, but with all the changes off the field as well as new blood on it, Tinney insists the club will not suffer as a result this season.

The chairman said: “Even prior to Gareth announcing he was moving back to Neath, the coaching team had already met up and decided to target this season as being the one where Thornbury could really make an impact.

“Yes, we have improved year upon year but this is the one season where they were saying we could easily do the top three. It would be a good time to do that given the changes in the league set-up which are not going to happen until the end of next season.

“It would set us in good stead to see where we would actually sit in the new league structure should we move up.

“There are opportunites for us in the fact that we do not have too many long away trips and are meeting teams who have been in this league for an awful long time. We recognise that when we have met these teams before, we did not perform to our best.

“The season looks good to us. The game against Old Pats, who are in a league higher than us, the team performed very well. We have a good squad that can meet those challenges.”

Tinney’s optimism about Thornbury’s prospects are based around keeping a good squad and adding the fresh faces.

He added: “We have players now who can make a dymanic improvement to us particularly in areas that were a concern. Our expansive backs play has always been one of our strengths and the new players we have brought in will maintain that again.

“We are maintaining our strategy of meeting big teams and putting one across them. One of the teams that went up last year, Ivybridge, we beat them home and away last year.”

Tinney also said the loss of Llewellyn after six year at the helm where he guided the club from bouncing around the lower leagues to a position of strength where they are now, was probably a natural progression.

The chairman added: “It was always something that was there in the back of our minds that it was always going to happen at some stage. We probably thought that the six/seven years he spent with us were well used and he got the best out of us.

“It was probably a natural turn of events. There are a lot of clubs who get to this level, stay for two or three season and then go back down. But we have been able to maintain a strong and steady level with a few ups and downs.

“This is our league and we are destined to be here. We want to play at this level.”