By Paul Smith 
Returning to Coventry Rugby after two years in the Premiership with Newcastle, scrum half Josh Barton remains a distinctive figure.
For those trying for the first time to identify the 13 new players who are now a month into pre-season at the Butts Park Arena, his white-blonde hair is a good starting point.
However, even after just a few minutes of semi-opposed rugby, it is Barton’s role as a sergeant major, barking orders at the forwards, and his blistering acceleration through a gap that quickly bring back memories from a 2021/22 campaign which Cov concluded with a cup final appearance.
The Millfield School product scored ten tries in his first 26 games for the blue-and-whites, one of which won the club’s try-of-the-season award, and based on the available pre-season evidence Barton is about to pick up where he left off.
But have two years in the top flight with Newcastle and experience playing in European competition changed the now 26-year-old?
“I hope I return as a better player,” he laughs, “but I should probably let other people decide on that.
“What I would like to think is that I come back in slightly more of a leadership role through the extra experience I have gained.
“We have a very talented group which is also a young group and I’ve said to the senior boys that my first priority is performing myself but then contributing in whatever way I can to pulling the younger players through.”
Barton says he saw the beginnings of the current version of Cov towards the end of his previous time at the BPA and he believes the development layered on since then sets the blue-and-whites up for a productive season.
“The positive attitude and trying to play with a lot of ambition and freedom started to filter in towards the end of my previous spell here and you can now really see what a good environment it has become.
“Alex had taken over midway through my last season and by the end of it when we had the good cup run you could see change being implemented and start to feel that positive progress was being made.
“Although quite a few senior players moved on at the end of that season, the efforts put in by the people at the top had started to move things in a positive direction and you can now see how effective that has been.
“There’s a lot of ambition individually but also collectively as a group; we have a good balance of young lads who want to put their foot down and more senior lads who’ve been here a while and know what it’s all about. Knowing not just about the Championship but also about this club and what it wants to do is really important.
“I think there’s a really exciting time coming up. If we have some luck and people stay fit we’re talking about smashing some ceilings and seeing how far we can take this.”
Pre-season training across every level of rugby is noted for having a heavy emphasis on building endurance and strength through hard work and Barton says it gets no easier with the passing of time.
“It gets more familiar each time you do it but I definitely wouldn’t say it gets any easier,” he confirms. “You know what’s coming and you know you have to get stuck in when the strength and conditioning department take control.
“Once you get into the second month it gets more rugby-based and you have games to look forward to which is when the fun starts.
“It will also be nice to get off site and go to the pre-season camp we have planned in Lincolnshire. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut coming to the Butts every day to do fitness-based training day after day so a change of scenery will be really good.
“There’s also quite a lot of new faces this year and the team bonding that comes from spending a lot of time together not just on the pitch but also off it is really important.”
Cov’s pre-season efforts are all leading to an opening Championship night at the Richmond Athletic Ground where they face an awkward-looking assignment against a London Scottish side that went within a long-distance, last-minute penalty of claiming a famous win when the sides last met there in January.
Prior to joining Cov in 2020 Barton spent his formative years with the Exiles and while few familiar faces remain from a pre-COVID era when they were still fully-professional Cov’s scrum half is expecting a tough test.
“Scottish have undergone a massive change since I was there,” he said, “but there’s a few old faces who it will be good to see and Friday night under the lights at the RAG will be a challenging start.
“Things started to click a bit for them towards the end of last season and they have made some really good signings and added some good experience.”
Pre-season friendlies at the Butts Park Arena:
August 24th (3pm kick off) Coventry Rugby v Birmingham Moseley
September 13th (7.30pm kick off) Coventry Rugby v Chinnor
These games are included in season memberships which are available here: https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/membership/
Match tickets are available via this link: https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/tickets/
