Rory Thornton is aiming for a double this weekend – as hometown coach and loan town lock.
The loan part comes first when the second row lines up for the Cardiff Blues – where he is on a one-season lend – against his parent region, the Ospreys.
On Sunday, the Wales forward is back at the Principality Stadium as a coach with Bonymaen, as the Division 1 East side attempt to knock over Andy Powell’s Brecon in the final of the WRU National Plate.
Bonymaen head coach Stuart Allen believes Thornton’s wealth of knowledge has put his side in a strong position for their big day out.
“I’ve been really impressed with Rory,” said Allen.
“All the players are his mates and he’s a Bonymaen boy. To have his wealth of knowledge and his experience as an international and a regional player has paid dividends to us.
“I’ve got a lot of time for Rory. He will be here today coaching the boys. He’s done a fantastic job with the players, but there is no ego attached to him. He’s just one of the boys.
“The fact he’s currently involved in a professional environment means he passes on a lot of worthwhile experience to us which has been really helpful.
“But at the same time it’s a team effort and all the boys and the other coaches have worked very hard to put us in a position to win silverware.”
Unusually for a Plate final Brecon are an unknown quantity for Bonymaen with Allen’s side unsure of what to expect.
Bonymaen come into this fixture off the back of a relatively successful league campaign where they finished second in Division 1 East. They only narrowly missed out on being crowned champions.
“We don’t want to focus too much on Brecon because we can only control what we can bring to the party,” said Allen.
“We know they’re going to be quite big and we’re prepared for that, but we’re just going to be treating each game as it comes. I really liked Andy as a player.
“He always gave it everything he had on the pitch and I’m sure he’ll do the same with Brecon, but we’re not playing against Andy. It will be our boys against their boys.
“We know they’re big up front and they have a good goal kicker so our discipline will have to be good. We’ve just got to focus on our game.
“I honestly think that on our day we’re capable of beating anybody. We’re definitely underdogs for this and a lot of the focus has been on Brecon. That suits us as well.”
Bonymaen’s success is built around a strong team ethic with every player prepared to shed blood for the jersey. Hooker and captain Andrew Pritchard believes the spirit within the camp is so strong it can get them over the line this afternoon.
The 31-year-old electrician spent a season playing semi-professional rugby for Llandovery in the Principality Premiership but insists it doesn’t come close to representing his home town club.
He said: “I’ve been involved with Bonymaen for 20 years. I came through the juniors and played youth up there. There are only two boys in our squad at the moment who haven’t come through our junior or youth set-up which shows the hard work everyone puts in behind the scenes has paid off.
“I couldn’t ask to play with a better bunch of boys. Everyone has come through the system and it just means so much more because a lot of the boys played together through juniors and youth.
“When you were playing juniors your aspiration was to play for the senior team. To walk out at Principality Stadium today with the club’s colours and badge on will be amazing.
“Everyone is going to be bouncing for the occasion, but we’ve got to keep a cool head at the same time.
“I think if we do that and manage the occasion we should be alright. I had one season at Llandovery.
“It was enjoyable playing semi-professional rugby, but the travelling was too far and I wanted to come back and play for Bonymaen because it means so much more to me.
“Cup finals are one off games, but it is nice to have some momentum to bring into this one. It’s a completely different occasion.
“Both sides will be firing on the day and we’ll be ready to go. We don’t know much about Brecon, but we’ve heard they are very physical up front.”
