BERKSHIRE boy Ben Atkins cannot wait to bring his energy to Rams after becoming the club’s fourth summer signing.
The 23-year-old forward, equally adept in the back row or at hooker, comes on board following the sad demise of London Irish and cannot wait to get involved.
He explained: “I’m massively excited and it’s great to be able to play for my local team, hopefully helping them to push on.
“For about the last six weeks I’ve been training on my own and hated it, so I’m just so excited to get going for pre-season and the season itself.
“Being from the area I wanted to join a club where I feel I can invest my time and energy; I’ve spoken to Seb about whether there’s a chance I could do a bit of coaching with an age-group team.”
Having played his junior rugby from the age of three to 12 at Reading, Atkins then switched to Bracknell until he was 18.
Educated at The Forest School and then St Paul’s ACE, the new signing also spent plenty of time at Old Bath Road watching his brother Jacob while the fly-half was on loan for the 2015/16 season.
Proud of his local roots, he continued: “I know a lot of the boys already – I’ve known Ollie Cole for a long time because he went to school with my brother, the Hayhow brothers from my Bracknell days, Max Hayman, Scuba – I feel like I’m forgetting people as well!
“I came down all the time (in 2015/16) and you could feel the buy-in from the community – I know the turn-out has gone up year-on-year which is outstanding and as the team’s progressed so has the supporter base.
“When Irish moved back to London it did leave some rugby fans isolated in Berkshire, and Rams is a club which people can rally towards and get behind moving forwards. It’s a great thing.”
Having played for England Under 20s as a hooker – scoring a try against France in his second game – Atkins has also spent time on loan at London Scottish along with a talismanic spell at Esher last season.
In his nine games for the Eees, the relegated side won seven times, the loanee crossing the whitewash in his final four appearances against Leeds Tykes, Hull, Plymouth Albion and Bishop’s Stortford.
Describing his style of play, he said: “I see myself primarily as a back row, but I’m also capable of playing hooker so it might be a bit of a hybrid role – I’ll do whatever’s needed at any time.
“I’d like to think of myself as a skilful player, but my main thing would be ball carrying, trying to get the team on the front foot and over the gain-line.”
While Atkins is relishing life at Rams, it follows a traumatic couple of months which ended with London Irish being taken into administration, and he saved his last words to pay tribute to the times he had with Exiles.
He concluded: “I was a fan of the club and went to watch every week in the stands, so to then play professionally for them was a dream come true.
“I loved it, had a real passion for it and to have it cut short in the way it did was pretty horrific, but I look back in a positive way and I’m grateful for the experiences I had with them.”
By Richard Ashton
