CASKIE REJECTED BEACH LIFESTYLE FOR MOSELEY.

Byline: BY BRIAN DICK

LOYAL backs coach Don Caskie has revealed he turned down a lucrative offer in South Africa to turn professional with Moseley.

The former Gloucester three-quarter, who helped Ian Smith guide Mose back through the divisions, has signed a full-time contract at Billesley Common despite being tempted by a new life in sunny Durban.

Caskie was contacted by former Worcester coach Andy Keast and offered an academy manager role with a beach-side apartment and car but opted to see through his job in Birmingham, begun more than four years ago.

Moseley had just moved into their new home and flirted with a second relegation in two seasons when Smith and Caskie were brought to the club.

Since then their league position has improved every year and with the RFU about to introduce a 12-team Championship, they are ready to move back to the big time.

Contracting Caskie full-time is the next step but while the choice for the club was straightforward, it was anything but for the man himself.

"Andy Keast made me a fantastic offer, it was a gemof an opportunity," Caskie said.

"It was an incredibly hard decision. Ian and I have been friends, coached and played together for 20-odd years. There was a lot of soul-searching but our vision was to improve Moseley on the playing side. We have unfinished business at Moseley and believe we are on the cusp of something big. I couldn't walk away."

Caskie's situation was not simple. As well as coaching the Red and Black backs he owns and runs a popular bar in his home town of Cheltenham.

He combined the roles for the last fewyears and has not always found it easy. Moving into full-time rugby means he can devote all of his energies to the Moseley cause.

"It was a double life. This relieves me of so much pressure," the 43-year-old said. "Quite regularly I'd be doing a 17-hour day, going to Hartpury for 9am, working at the bar, heading off to Moseley, preparing sessions, training and then getting back to Cheltenham at 10pm. Depending on who was on and the day, I wouldn't get to bed until 2am and then start again. If we were away from on Saturday I'd be straight back in a car on the M5."

All of which makes it incredible how far Mose have come. In their first season Mose finished third in NationalTwo, they won the title at a canter the following year and have defied the odds to stay in an ultra-competitive First Division.

Having signed a player sharing agreement with Caskie's former club they are threatening to gatecrash the top half of the table.

"We inherited a side that was pretty lowon confidence, with a limited gameplan and expectation," he said.

"We have not had the resources to buy in players, we have had to do it with gradual progress but year on year there has been an improvement.

"We are very pleased that we have been able to do it with a lot of the players that we found at the bottom of NationalTwo and get them playing very well in National One.

"We have complemented that with the added quality of the boys from Gloucester who have such pace.

"Now the backs are at their most exciting since we have been here and we have done that with half and half from Moseley and Gloucester.

"Against Manchester a couple of weeks ago every one of them played out of position and some point but still played very well."

And Caskie is optimistic that progression can continue. With the second tier being reduced to 12 teams next season Mose must finish 11th or higher this term.

That is exactly where they stood before yesterday's game against London Welsh and the gap to the fully professional outfits is closing all the time.

"We have improved year on year and I have absolutely no doubt we will do so again next year. We have had five or six really close matches that have come down to the last play or a referee's call so we have no one and nothing to fear."

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OFFER: Don Caskie