CORNISH All Blacks player/coach, Ryan Westren, admits that Launceston Rugby Club is the ‘second biggest thing’ in his life as he hopes to help the club move back into the National Leagues.

The 33-year-old outside centre, who also played in the Championship for Cornish Pirates and London Scottish as well as the All Blacks, has made more than 250 appearances for the club in three separate spells at Polson Bridge as well as being the current backs coach.

Ryan, who hails from Madron, near Penzance, comes from a proud rugby family and admits that it was rugby from the beginning.

He said: “I was born into a rugby family. Dad (Phil) played more than 560 times for Penzance/Newlyn and if he wasn’t a player he was also the secretary or chairman and he always really active in the club. I was there almost 24/7.”

Ryan attended Heamoor Community Primary School before joining Mounts Bay School and as well as being an excellent rugby player, Ryan was also a dab hand at cricket, playing throughout the Cornwall age-groups as well as Paul Cricket Club as a hard-hitting batsman and excellent fielder.

However as a teenager he took up a rugby scholarship at Colston’s School in Bristol, something he looks back on with fondness.

He said: “I played at Mounts Bay School and for Penzance/Newlyn until the age of 14 and then I was offered a rugby scholarship at Colston’s with another former All Black, Keiron Lewitt.

“To be honest I really enjoyed it and I did my GCSEs and A Levels there. Although it was an academic school most people went there just for the rugby at that time and that was all I was focused on. Our school work fitted in and around the rugby.”

Once he’d completed his studies in Gloucestershire, Westren was focused on carving out a career for himself as a professional.

Upon returning home, he rejoined the newly-renamed Cornish Pirates in National One (now known as the Championship). However, he failed to make a significant impact as he was restricted to just a couple of cameos off the bench over the next two seasons.

Fed up with his lack of game time, Ryan knew that things had to change. In the summer of 2006 he decided to join Launceston in National Division Two (now National League One) — a love affair which still continues to this day.

He said: “My opportunities were extremely limited and although I played the odd cup game, I was young at the time and there were some quality players and it was hard to get a look in.

“If I stayed there who knows what would have happened but I didn’t want to waste my younger days playing a few games off the bench.

“Launceston approached me and I thought it was a good move even though it was semi-pro at the time. I was aware of Josh Lord and a couple of others but I was there just to focus on playing rugby.”

In his first season at the club Launceston reached the second-tier for the first time in their history as they finished runners-up to Esher.

The promotion gave the North Cornwall club the chance to pit their wits against the likes of Northampton Saints, current Aviva Premiership champions Exeter Chiefs, Plymouth and Albion and his boyhood club, Cornish Pirates.

Although the All Blacks won eight of their 30 games, they went down by just three points.

Looking back, Ryan admits it was a special year.

He said: “I didn’t realise at the time just how big it was to play in the Championship and in the top echelons of English rugby as my thoughts were on making it as a Premiership or Championship player.

“To be able to go to the likes of Franklin’s Gardens with a local club was just incredible. We were batting well above average and although we nearly pulled off a miracle, we gave it our best shot.

“It was obviously incredibly hard for us to compete, but it makes you realise what you can achieve when you’re fighting for each other.”

As well as some pretty special times with Launceston, he’s also made plenty of appearances for Cornwall, including two appearances for the Duchy at Twickenham in 2007 and 2014.

He said: “I’d already played for Cornwall under 20s and captained them in my final year. I always felt that if I’d got a good season under my belt that I would get myself into the squad.

“I was made captain soon after which was massive as when I was growing up playing for Cornwall was huge, they would get crowds of seven or eight thousand so to run out as captain in the Black and Gold was a dream come true.”

The 2008/09 and 2009/10 seasons saw the All Blacks finish seventh and third, but ahead of the 2010/11 campaign, changes were forthcoming as financial problems meant the club went into administration, meaning they started the National League One season with a 20-point deduction.

Despite the changes and the fact that they finished on 44 points (ironically 64 points would have ensured their safety), Ryan flourished as he formed a formidable midfield partnership with Pale Nonu, the brother of former New Zealand centre, Ma’a, as he scored 24 tries, including ten in his last five games.

Ryan admitted that although the season was a struggle as a team, it was the season that defined him.

He said: “Personally the year we got relegated from National League One was my most enjoyable as it helped give me a chance to be picked up.

“Despite the liquidation and 20-point deduction, we felt like no-one could stop us. One thing that sticks out in my mind is that it allowed me to play at the level I wanted to.

“Throughout that season we always had the deduction in the back of our minds. At the time we thought to ourselves that if we could get back to 0 by October we’d have a chance but we were always playing catch-up. The pressure which should have been coming on to us in February was hitting us in December, which made everything a must-win and in the end the pressure told.”

After five years at Polson Bridge, Ryan knew that it was time for a change and decided to return to his hometown club ahead of the 2011/12 season.

However, yet again, it didn’t go to plan as by November he had rejoined Launceston on loan, before a career-defining opportunity arose.

He said: “I felt like I had unfinished business down there. I gave them my word quite early on in November that I’d join them and looking back I should have waited a bit longer to see what was out there.

“Unfortunately it didn’t work out again. I felt that I wasn’t given a sufficient chance apart from an appearance off the bench in the league and a couple appearances in the British and Irish Cup. So when the opportunity came up to go to London Scottish I jumped at it.

“I knew a few of the lads at London Scottish and they were on the teams that came in for me before I went to the Pirates, and I knew Mark Bright who went up there from Redruth after we were both named in the National League One dream team the season before.

“They needed a centre and had seen that I wasn’t playing a great deal so they made their move.

“They played down at Pirates on the Sunday and they were quickly in touch and I was up there by the Wednesday. I had to leave Claire (now Ryan’s wife) at home in Penzance with my parents, but she knew that I wasn’t happy at not playing.”

Ryan made an excellent impression in the capital, scoring four tries in 15 appearances and was offered a contract to stay on for the following year.

However, after a gruelling 2012/13 pre-season where he pushed himself to the limit to get himself in the shape of his life, Ryan picked up a groin injury which he never really recovered from.

Then in his second game back on September 27 against Nottingham, he damaged his knee, ruling him out for the rest of the campaign.

However, head coach Simon Amor had left the club after getting involved in the England Sevens set-up and Ryan was told to find new employers.

In the summer of 2013 he married Claire and moved back to Cornwall with aspirations of getting back into the professional game and signed on the dotted line at Polson Bridge for a third-spell at the club in National League Two South.

It took Ryan quite a while to get back into the swing of things, and being settled back in Cornwall, he decided to devote himself to the All Blacks and start up a new business venture.

In the summer of 2014 he started all of Cornwall’s games as they reached the Bill Beaumont County Championship final before losing 36-26 to Lancashire, and it was during that time that he set up RDW Fit.

While his business has continued to flourish, including starting his new gym under the grandstand at the rugby club, Ryan continued to stay with the All Blacks despite three extremely difficult years.

In the summer of 2015, following Plymouth Albion’s relegation from the IPA Greene King Championship, a whole host of players left Launceston, leaving just a handful of experienced players.

Despite offers elsewhere, this time Ryan wasn’t interested in leaving. They then suffered back-to-back relegations into the sixth-tier of English rugby, Tribute South West One (West), but continues to stay.

He said: “At that stage (2015), leaving would only have been a short-term thing and I didn’t want to ruin the relationship I’d built up at Launceston Rugby Club for the sake of a couple of years and extra money.

“From then until now it’s only reiterated that I made the right choice. I’m now up to around 270 games and I can hopefully get up to 300 plus.

“I want to carry on playing until I do a disservice to myself and the club or until someone deservedly takes the shirt away from me, I’m not just giving it away.”

Despite the relegations, Ryan believes that the club is on the up once more.

He said: “The club needed an overhaul throughout. We needed to reconnect to the local community and create that pathway again for players to come right up through the minis and juniors and into the first team.

“As a club we should be able to maintain a National Two League South status from a local area. What we’d lost was our pulling power to be a stepping stone. Before, people would come to us but now they’d rather stay at their local clubs as we’re not as high up as we were before.

“However we’ve made huge progress this year to sit third at the moment. There’s lots more to be done but the positives far outweigh the negatives.

“In my eyes we’re one year into a five-year project/cycle and for the first time in ages we’ll go into pre-season with some momentum behind us.

“We need to concentrate on the rugby while we’re down here but I’m hugely excited to be part of the squad for the next couple of years at least. I’m definitely committed to playing or the next two seasons and then we’ll see. The mindset is to get the club back up, so hopefully we can do it.”

Ryan’s love affair with Launceston Rugby Club continues to this day and admits that he expects it to continue forever.

He said: “Apart from my family it’s the biggest thing in my life, I love it.

“I see this now as my hometown club. I want to be able to come back here when I’m 70 and have a drink.

“That’s the biggest thing for me, If I’d left a couple of years ago, it’d never have felt the same walking back in here in 15 or 20 years’ time.”