Meet Luke Bouchier – pronounced ‘Boucher’ – signed from Leicester Lions…
Our new number ten…
I work with the Academy boys at Leicester Tigers. The move came about after having a discussion with Matt Smith (Cambridge backs coach) at the club and he put me in contact with Newbs here over the summer and I was able to put pen to paper. It seems to be a good decision so far! They’re a great bunch of lads. I loved my time at Leicester Lions – four really good years over there, creating lots of good memories with lots of good blokes. We were battling for a good three seasons down at the bottom of National 1, but taking down some big names on the way and two years of some real graft and staying up here on final days of the year, some real fond memories there. But yeah, massive lessons learned against opposition who we’ll play this season. I’m really looking forward to taking on those challenges with a new group.
I’m a generous 6 foot 2 and I’m anywhere between 90 and 92 kilos. So a little bit bigger than some of the others I’ve come up against in the league, but I’ve come up against some very skilled blokes. I try to use that to my best advantage as much as I can. I see the game in a very similar way to Newbs – after a few discussions with him across the summer – and I’d like to see us play with a lot of freedom but also with a decent amount of structure.
I’ll let someone else talk about how I play the game – I don’t tend to think about putting words to it too much. l mean I’ll never shy away from a tackle but if someone else wants to take the tackle for me they’re more than welcome to do so! But yeah, it’s a position where you’ve got to be brave and you get a fair few big lads run down your channel so you have to front up them and do your best to put them to floor!
There’re a couple of Derby days that have been highlighted – we’ve got Bury St Edmonds and Bishop Stortford to look forward to. There are a couple of teams inside the league which personally I’d like to get one over after spending three years in the league and haven’t had a win against the likes of Moseley. That would be a good one for myself to get a win over. We got them first game of the year, so hopefully we can tick that one off early doors.
My dad originally got me into the game, took me down to the local rugby club which he played for down at Chesham Stags in Buckinghamshire and ever since then I wasn’t able to put a ball down. I grew up just playing for the local club and alongside multiple sports, cricket, football, tennis, the lot, I got thrown into everything but probably at the age of, what was it, around about 16, you have to make a decision on which path you want to go down and I definitely chose the rugby route having made the switch of schools across to Oakland’s College where I represented the A side over there and then from there progressed onto university rugby over at Nottingham Trent and spent four fond years across there and then I had a gig and an opportunity at Leicester Tigers to go and work.
Alongside that, Leicester Lions being a local club to them. Got in contact with Gareth Collins, the head coach there. I haven’t looked back since. There were training opportunities at Nottingham Rugby Club as well, which massively helped and benefited myself and developed me.There’s a good link between the university side and the championship side there and Nottingham create and develop really good players. You see the likes that have gone on to get in premiership, international and even British and Irish Lions appearances. So they’ve got a good set up over there yeah and like I said I had four fond memories four fond years making lots of memories with some good blokes across that.
This season, I’d like to play as much as I possibly can and stamp my game on this team. I think we’ve got a very good group of lads here who are extremely ambitious and there’s some lads as a group I think want to win as many games as possible as does everyone in this league. I think that’s a given. But yeah, I’d like to just play as much as I can and put my hand up for selection and then, when on the pitch, play with as much freedom as I possibly can, too.