Over the course of the 2017-18 D1 club season, Belmont Shore probably had one half-hour of rugby the club truly regretted; problem is, it came in the national club final.

That 30-minute stretch saw Mystic River run out to a 22-6 lead. And while the next 50 minutes saw Belmont Shore outscore Mystic 19-3, it wasn't enough, and Mystic won the title.

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Now back for another run in a Pacific Rugby Premiership that is even tougher this year with the addition of Glendale, Belmont Shore and head coach Ray Egan look to rebound after sending several players to pro contracts.

FloRugby caught up with Egan to see where the club is now.

FloRugby: What major personnel changes do you have this year?

Ray Egan: We have lost a few players this year to the MLR, but we have gained some good local talent that are fitting in really well. We lost No. 8 Keni Nasoqeqe to the San Diego Legion, and we lost prop Mafi Seanoa and flanker Pita Semeane to the Utah Warriors. We are delighted for those players to get a chance at the next level. 

Players that we have added are Niall Barry from UCLA, Calston Harris from Huntington Beach, Ed Tandy from Santa Monica and Los Angeles players Julian Haigh and Luke Tillett.

FloRugby: How have the changes impacted the team?

Egan: Obviously we will miss those players leaving as they were all starters for us last year but we still have a very young squad so we are working hard to get up to speed. 

We are just looking at players locally to us as there are a lot of good players in LA. We have a good squad again this year so we work on the players we have rather than look to get players from overseas.

FloRugby: What was the biggest issue the club faced last year and how have you handled it?

Egan: Last year we had a new committee change, which was a learning curve for us all, but they really have helped to grow the club over the last 12 months. We are getting more organized for the future which is great to see.

FloRugby: What does the addition of Glendale mean for you and for the league?

Egan: I think it is great to have Glendale back into the league, they were the standard before the MLR, so club that will add and raise the bar is welcomed in my books.

FloRugby: Does that raise the level of the league as a whole? And with that, and with teams seeing players move into MLR contracts, how do you think the PRP fits in with Major League Rugby?

Egan: I believe that we are the strongest league outside of the MLR, but I may be biased. I think the competition between all the teams are the reason the PRP was created in the first place. I think we can easily integrate with the MLR, but I think that each team could be aligned with an MLR team in the future and create an amateur arm for each of the MLR teams.

FloRugby: How much time have you spent thinking about the first 30 minutes of the D1 final when Mystic River took control? What did you learn from that?

Egan: Well the first 30 minutes was really our own fault. We tried to play to expansive early and some errors cost us early scores, which put us behind. I think we did well after that to bring the game back to a kick at the end. 

I think we just learned from that experience that we need to be more adaptable in our game plan this year so that we can change easier on the day or depending on how the game is going. We learned a lot from a good team too in Mystic, and their defense, so they are areas of opportunity for us this year to develop our attack game based off how teams play us.