A TRIAL match at the ALSAA complex later this week marks the birth of what the new coaching team hopes will be a new, more successful era for Swords Rugby Club. Dessie O'Connor and Jonny Bracken have moved a few miles down the road from Balbriggan to take over the reins from Chris Keane, and they have already been putting the squad through their paces ahead of the Leinster League kick-off in October.

Swords struggled in Division 3 last year and O'Connor ( head/ forwards coach), Bracken ( backs coach and a brother of former England World Cup winner Kyran) and fitness expert Lee Kelly will be striving to make the first team more competitive this coming season. Already, the signs are good, apparently.

Explaining the background to his appointment, O'Connor said: ' Myself and Johnny, who was a pro rugby player in the UK before coming back to Ireland and joining me at Balbriggan, had been together there for three years and we decided a change is as good as a rest.

' Swords approached us and we could see straightaway that they are motivated to put things together and try and get the club back on track.

' As a team they're a long way from where they used to be, but their facilities are second to none, their catchment area is in the hundreds of thousands and as a club they really seem to be a sleeping giant.'

It's a case of ' all welcome' at this Thursday's trial, which has a 7.30pm start at ALSAA, as Swords bid to boost the size and quality of their squad. Then the countdown begins to a friendly match against Belfast Academicals on the weekend of August 21st – part of a team-bonding pre-season tour.

The week after that Swords play their first competitive game, away to Skerries in the Jenkinson Cup.

' We are getting great numbers at training – about 40 or 50, about 12 of whom are new,' enthused O'Connor, who wore the colours of Skerries, Boyne and his native Balbriggan as a player before hanging up his boots.

' We're only in the early days, feeling our way around, but we've spent four weeks killing them with fitness training, which they've responded to fairly well. There's no point playing if you're aren't fit – don't bother turning up.'

But as O'Connor sees it, fitness wasn't the major issue which held back Swords last year.

' The biggest problem was communication,' he said.

' Chris Keane brought the club on a fair bit last season, but the forwards didn't know what the backs were doing, and the backs didn't understand what the forwards were doing.

' We are hoping to put together a plan based on simple rugby, so that everybody knows exactly what's happening on the pitch at any one time.

' There's definitely the numbers to put a very decent team together, but there's no miracle brush which will automatically turn the players into superstars.'

The addition to their ranks of several rugby league players brings a new dimension to the squad, while the influence of new captain Fiachra Coll ( last year's skipper Mal Bradley is taking a back seat for 2010/ 11 after getting married) will also be important.

' Fiachra will be a key guy for us because he'll be implementing our plans on the pitch. We'll be trying to come up with a plan where we don't leak 30 points in 10 minutes!'

- Marcus CAVAROLI