Scorpions captain relishes challenge
Welsh international loose forward Aled James believes that he made the right decision to join South Wales Scorpions and is enjoying captaining the side in their debut season.
The 28-year old helped the Scorpions go top of Championship One with a comfortable win over London Skolars at The Gnoll on Sunday.
A holder of eight Welsh caps, James, who has played Super League for both Widnes Vikings and Celtic Crusaders, believes that there is a lot of talent in the young Scorpions side who are going to improve as the season goes on.
“I think we’ve done really well so far,” said James. “We’ve had three good wins and a narrow loss and there’s no real expectations on us this season as we’re a new club. Therefore if we win games, all is good, if we don’t, then we’ll learn from the defeats and carry on.
“We didn’t know what to expect this year. We’ve a brand new team and most of the boys haven’t played professionally before a few weeks ago. We’re fortunate to have had help from the Crusaders who have loaned us players. People like Jordan James and Ben Flower have been outstanding for us and they’re certainly helping the younger lads along.
“But in fairness, the work we’ve done off the field through Seibs (Anthony Seibold), our coach, is paying off on the field and we’re developing some good players. Christiaan Roets especially has been excellent and he seems to have found his position now in second row. He works so hard and you can’t miss him. Steve Parry has made dummy half his own role and people are going to start to look out for him. Jamie Murphy is another who’s been coming along well.”
James started playing rugby league at Cardiff Demons before being snapped up by then Super League club Widnes Vikings in late 2003. After a spell at Sheffield Eagles, he returned to South Wales in 2006 to join the Crusaders. After being unable to move to North Wales, the Scorpions snapped him up and he also now holds a development officer role with Wales Rugby League.
“I was a bit disappointed to leave the Crusaders as I felt that I had unfinished business there,” James admits. “But the move up north made it impossible for me to continue with the club. Then Seibs gave me a ring and said ‘we want you to be part of this club’ so I thought about it and it made a lot of sense. I’m really enjoying the new roles that I have and hopefully at Scorpions we can aim for promotion in the next couple of years.”
