Saints stalwart Clive Martin has stepped down from his position as chief scout after 21 years of service with the club.
Brought to the club by then-director of rugby Barrie Corless, Martin started working with the Saints Under-21s.
In a decade of success, he coached the East Midlands to four County Championship Under-21 finals, winning two of them, before being invited to become chief scout by John Steele.
Martin worked with some of the biggest names in rugby in his time at Franklin’s Gardens, including the likes of Matt Dawson, Budge Pountney and Steve Thompson.
“Budge Pountney had fantastic determination and attitude,” he said.
“From my experience this is what makes players stand out. I’ve often said that players have talent, but it’s then down to the coaches and his own attitude as to whether he then makes it.
“You’ve got to see him week in, week out for that.
“Ali Hepher was another cracking player, and I’m delighted to see him doing so well as a coach with Exeter.
“Ian Vass was a very talented player who was unfortunate to not get back to where he had been before a serious leg injury.
“And I was the first to talk to Matt Dawson and bring him to the club after coaching him with Buckinghamshire Under-16s.
“I also remember Ian McGeechan saying in the late-1990s that we need a replacement for Freddie Mendez,
‘Clive, who have you got?’ We were trying to convert Steve Thompson to being a prop at the time, and I pushed for him to be a hooker. And the rest is history!”
Recruitment and development manager Dusty Hare says that Martin deserves plaudits for the work he has done for the Saints over the past two decades.
“I’ve only worked with Clive for a relatively short time, but I have known him for a lot longer and he has worked very hard for the Saints, often without much recognition from the wider public,” he said.
“Sometimes that is in the nature of the job – a scout spends a lot of time on the road building relationships and identifying talent.
“But the work someone like Clive does is vital in the long-term development of the players coming into the squad.
“Clive has played a big part in the growth of the Saints Academy and while we will miss him I hope that he will remain involved in some capacity over the coming years.”
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