Former Glasgow Warrior, Scotland international and British & Irish Lion Allan Dell has hung up his boots and joined the club in his new role as Head of Development. We caught up with him as he starts his next chapter at Stirling County, here’s what he had to say:
What is your new role at the club?
I’ve come in as the head of development, looking after the U18 boys and taking them forward. I’m looking to transfer as many of the boys through our pathways and take them to the senior side, as well as try to establish a way and identity of playing throughout all our age groups to make it easier for the boys to transition moving up. So basically looking to develop our youth section and get the boys ready and good enough to transition into senior rugby.
What are you most looking forward to about the upcoming year?
Obviously the boys are in a really strong position already, having just won the cup last year, so I’m looking forward to seeing how many of those boys we can transition into senior rugby this year. I think that will be my biggest marker; to see how well we can get them to step up after winning the cup to then make the move up to seniors. We’ve already got a few boys ear marked that we would like to start dipping into senior rugby, so seeing if we can get them to flourish and do well at that next level is something I’m really looking forward to. It will be a challenge, and we don’t want to rush or force any players up, but we naturally think a lot of the boys have got the potential to do it, so now it’s just about giving them the platform and the tools to make the most of the opportunity and step up.
What are your first impressions of the club and the squad so far?
First impressions of the club: very ambitious. That’s probably the reason why I’ve come to take up this role, I love the ambition the club has. It’s very welcoming, very friendly and family-oriented, which is something that I’ve been looking for for a long time, so I’m very happy that I’ve found a club like this. With the U18 squad, a lot of the kids are very talented, they’re hard working and dedicated. You give them a task and they just get on with it and try to find a solution. They’re quite a mature group who make good decisions under pressure. And because they’re such hard working, good kids, I’m very excited to give as much of my time as possible to be able to help them get to the highest level that they can each individually get up to. And that’s going to be my role throughout the whole club; to try and maximise the potential of all the kids playing their rugby at Stirling.
The loosehead prop made 84 appearances for Edinburgh Rugby before heading down south to London Irish in 2019. After a 3 year spell in England, he made his way back up north to sign for Glasgow Warriors, where he made a further 12 appearances. In this time, he won 34 caps for Scotland, as well as earning himself a call up to the 2017 British & Irish Lions squad, where he came off the bench to become Lion no. 834.
We’re delighted to welcome Allan to the club and we can’t wait to see the development and progression within our youth section.