Royston Rugby Club U9’s head coach Jamie Green said he was “very humbled” after being short-listed as one of six for Coach of the Year at September’s National Rugby Awards.

Green, who was put forward to the awards panel by members of the club, has overseen the endeavours of this current crop of youngsters since the U5 category.

Volunteering to take a training session to help out a coaching colleague one morning, Green and the group clicked immediately and they have not looked back since.

Incredibly, in the past three years, the team have lost just one match, sweeping to five trophies in as many competitions last season.

Subsequently, the mastermind behind the operation is receiving a chunk of the credit although he is keen to shy away from the limelight.

Green said: “It was a total shock to be honest.

“Randomly I was reading through the papers to see who was included and I almost jumped out of the bath when I saw my name. My wife knew it was in there so she wasn’t surprised at all.

“It is very flattering but something I feel the boys deserve. The coach is only as good as his team after all. Our results have been freakish. We entered an Elite Championship which was the best teams from different counties and we beat some of these quite easily which was all the more amazing.”

Despite his reluctance to take personal acknowledgement for the team’s achievements, the “freakish” results are by no means fortuitous.

Green admits that people both in and out of the game of rugby pick his “encyclopaedic” brain for advice and guidance.

The 36-year-old attributes his lads’ terrific form on a simple formula though.

He continued: “I tell my players to use their brains not their bodies. Everyone thinks rugby is a game of hitting people as hard as you can but it is much simpler than that.

“I have also coined a phrase of ‘run at spaces not faces’. The game is all about judgement and timing. This has allowed the players to avoid injuries which keeps the team together and always heightens our chances of success.”

The former Royston captain’s invitation to the awards at Twickenham on September 2 has left Green spellbound at the opportunity of rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of the sport, in the same year England are vying to lift the William Webb Ellis World Cup Trophy on home soil.

Green said: “Being at the same event as people like George Forde and the Vunipola brothers is amazing.

“Stuart Lancaster [England coach] could genuinely have been on this shortlist for Coach of the Year but he isn’t and I am still in shock.”