Moray Rugby Club begin search for next head coach after Cameron Hughes steps down to player role and looks back on double Caledonia League title glory and promotion to national leagues
Two consecutive leagues titles, a cup final at Scotland’s home of rugby and promotion to the national leagues.
That’s what Moray Rugby Club have achieved during player-coach Cameron Hughes’ four years at the helm, but the former Premiership player is stepping down from the role.
He’ll continue to play for the Elgin club, who he guided to back-to-back Caledonia League triumphs and the climb to National League Division 4.
Family life will take precedence for the 30-year-old, who looked back on what has proved to be one of the most successful spells in Moray’s history.
“I've got an 18-month-old at the moment, and another one due in August - so it's going to get a bit manic in the house,” he said.
“I think I’ll manage to get a couple more years of playing under my belt, but I just want to focus on enjoying it a bit more without the stress.
“The same voice for four years can get a bit samey-samey, and sometimes you just need a new face and a new voice to come in and shake it up a bit, which I think is what the boys need.
“We'll see how the transition from player to coach goes. I've always been notoriously uncoachable, so we'll see how fun it's going to be!”
The task of replacing Hughes as first team coach began earlier this month, with the club advertising the vacancy with the aim of finding someone suitably qualified to pick up the baton and carry on the team’s achievements.
Hughes came through the youth ranks of the Morriston club to play at the highest level in Scotland and Wales during his prime.
He played in regional and district selects squads before moving to Wales, where he played inside centre for top tier side RGC 1404 (Rygbi Gogledd Cymru).
A return to Scotland saw Hughes join Stirling County in the Scottish Premiership and he also represented Glasgow High Kelvinside in the national league before coming full circle and heading back up to Moray to take on a rugby development officer role.
He was appointed as Moray’s first team player coach around the time of the Covid-19 outbreak, and once rugby returned to normal he set about a plan to take the club to higher reaches.
“We had two years in Caley (Division) 2, then straight out of Caley 1 into National (Division 4). It's been a bit of a rise and probably a bit of a steep learning curve for everyone, including myself and the committee in the nationals, but it's been really good fun.”
Did Hughes imagine when he first took on the coaching role that Moray could climb the leagues so quickly?
“Not at all, and it's never been a conversation as a coaching group or as a player group about where do we want to be in three or four years' time.
“It's just been a bit of a natural thing - we've never pushed promotion or anything on the boys.
“It was a case of striving to play the best rugby we can play. We want to play at the level where the boys should be playing at, really. So that's been good.”
Moray won the Caledonia North Division 2 title in 2023, following that up with a league triumph in Caledonia North Division 1 last year.
The club also went on a memorable run to the final of the National Shield, where they took on Cumnock at the Hive Stadium at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, where an 82nd minute try conversion robbed Moray of glory.
This season they played in National League Division 4 for the first time in their history and more than held their own to finish fifth.
Moray were the most travelled side in the division and enjoyed some memorable successes, as well as a couple of heavy defeats against leading sides.
“This is probably the first season where we've been really, really challenged as a group,” Hughes reflected. “I think we've lost one more game than we did win, which we haven't done in four years.
“Up until then it’s been pretty easy coaching because we haven't been up against it. When you start losing a few times and the boys start asking questions, that's when it can get a bit challenging.
“We’d been stuck in that Caley 2 league for such a long time, so getting that monkey off the back was probably the biggest highlight.”
As for the cruel National Shield final defeat of 2024 - after Moray led Cumnock 27-5 in the second half - Hughes admits it still hurts him.
“I'm sure at some point I will look back on that Murrayfield final and enjoy it, but I haven't watched it back yet,” he said.
“One day when I'm a bit older, I'll maybe start to enjoy that. In hindsight, it will be one of my best experiences playing at Murrayfield.
“Probably what I'm most proud about is getting the boys to play at the level that they should have been playing all this time - where they deserve to be.”
Hughes plans to work with the next coach and continue the progress being made at the club.
“We're just throwing the hat in the ring and see if we've got any nibbles. It's so hard to find quality coaches up here.
“I wouldn’t say we are isolated up here and rugby is massive in this area. You rely quite a lot on the (military) bases hoping that some person who gets posted that might be keen to do it.
“When we do find someone, there'll be a bit of handover of course. I'll probably be quite a vocal person and there's a lot of boys like that too.
“A lot of people have put a lot of effort in to get to where we are now. We're probably at that position at a rugby club where we've really got to start kicking on.
“We're probably at that junction where it's harder and harder with the same volunteers having to do everything because no one gets paid. That's always been a bit of a steep learning curve for a lot of people.
“A Saturday can be a full 17 hour day now. Asking volunteers to commit that much on a Saturday is really tough. We all need to pull together and put our hands up to take on the workload.
“There's definitely no reason why we can't keep kicking on and keep doing what we're doing. We've got a great youth section, and I think the average age this season was about 27 for us which is really good for a club in the north.”
Hughes added that the recruitment of RAF serviceman Matty Brougham as forwards coach next year was a big step forward for the team - Brougham has worked in the same role with the RAF rugby first team.
Now he can concentrate on being just a player, Hughes believes the experience of their debut national season can set the team in good stead.
“The vast majority of the boys have all moved from Caley 2 to National 4, and it was a taster for a lot of the boys which they were really comfortable in. I think we can really take the next season after that to really kick on a bit.
“With (unbeaten champions) Strathmore being promoted there's no one in Nat 4 that I'm worried about, and there's definitely an opportunity.
“We really shouldn't be far from top three and it all depends how we can recruit a few players, get a head coach in place and just go to pre-season hammer-and-tongs.”
