The Only Way (forward) is Essex - the Sabres reborn

The East Essex Sabres are a newly reformed team from Southend in Essex. I say reformed because they used to be called the Southend Sabres formed in 1984 by Lee Joseph and were part of BAFA until 2004 when they were sadly disbanded due to dwindling numbers and players not being able to commit etc. Now, with the NFL becoming such a major entity in this country it was time to re-ignite the excitement once again in the Southend and Essex area.

On the 30th August 2015 a recruitment day took place purely to see how many lads were interested in reviving the old Sabres as a venture going forward, this experiment turned out to be a major success and so the Southend Sabres were reborn as the East Essex Sabres.

 

Training took place firstly at the Sabres original home ground Southend Rugby Club, Warners Park, but after two weeks the Club moved to Chase High School Rugby fields, opposite Southend University Hospital, where training now takes place every Sunday morning 11.00 till 14.00.

As soon as our training schedule settled down the Sabres immediately applied to join BAFA.

After 14 weeks of vigorous training the Sabres played their very first affiliated game on the 28th November, against the Maidstone Pumas. BAFA’s Martin Cockrill was in attendance to ensure things ran according to the rules and in front of 130+ fans, the team showed how far they had come in such a short space of time.

 

Sadly the East Essex Sabres were unable to join the League for 2016. BAFA stated that it was too soon and whilst a lot of the criteria had been met, we (the Sabres) were not established enough and need more games under our belts. So in summing up, head coach Lee Joseph (pictured) and his assistant coaches, defensive coordinator and player/coach Kirk Beacham, defensive line coach Duncan Leslie and offensive coordinator Kevin Kerwan along with everybody involved in this amazing team are determined to become one of the most competitive teams in the country there for intensive training will continue and plenty of affiliated games will be arranged in which the East Essex Sabres will be looking towards improving their performances and you can rest assured that the East Essex Sabres will be in a BAFA league in 2017.