Stirling Clansmen Head Coach Robert Orr has outlined his squad’s no excuses policy and commitment to the cause as the driving force behind their recent title success, writes Stuart Kenny.

The Clansmen ran out 20-15 winners against the defending Birmingham Lions champions to claim the National Championship crown for the first time since 2003.

The result came on the back of a powerhouse post-season performance from the American football outlet that had seen them rack up 134 points in their three matches leading up to the final, with only seven conceded in reply.

The Clan have now well and truly proven that they deserved the number one seeding they had earned going into the play-offs, and Coach Orr admits that the title success still feels a little surreal.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” he said. “On Sunday morning I awoke with a momentary feeling that I’d dreamt the whole thing but thankfully the trophy was in bed next to me, so it was all good!

“The first thing I instilled here was an ethos of no excuses. I wanted the players and coaches to know that if something goes wrong, it’s on us.

“Last season, we lost in the final minute of the quarter final to Birmingham - who went on to win it - so we knew we were close, but close isn’t good enough.

“This season everyone bought into the idea that if we were going to actually win it, we would collectively need to earn the right to do so. No one was ever going to give it to us.

In what was a tight encounter, the Clansmen were tied at 0-0 with the Lions at half-time before a supreme second-half showing won them the match.

Coach Orr admits that, while the tie was always going to be tight, his team arrived with as much confidence as ever, something made boldly apparent from their entrance bearing a flag with the team’s outspoken slogan: ‘this is our year’.

“The coaches were very confident and I think that rubbed off on the players,” he said.

“We knew Birmingham would be our toughest test, as they have been to the last six finals on merit, but there was a steely determination about this team that I hadn’t witnessed before.

“As the players kept saying all year, this was, and now is, our year.

“The first half was probably only enjoyable for footballing purists but the second half was probably one of the best I have ever seen in this country. Mind you, it wasn’t enjoyable to coach in, because the focus required at that level is exhausting.

“The main difference was our defence though. They went lights out all game and to help us win it with an interception returned for six points was the icing on the cake and the cherry on top too.” For the numerous Clansmen seniors set to leave the university after the end of their courses this summer, the British title showdown in Leeds represented the final opportunity for a generation to prove that they could live up their billing.

With the likes of quarterback Dutch Stephenson and top point scorers Grant Isdale and Matt Barrington among the players getting ready to graduate, Orr knows that there is a lot of work ahead for the title-winning Clansmen.

He continued, “This was the last senior class to join the Clansmen during my tenure that knew anything other than success.

“All the current players have only known undefeated seasons and play off football but when the seniors joined, we went 4-4. For them to have started at the bottom and worked to where we now are makes it all the sweeter for me and them too.”