MOSELEY supporters could be afforded the first seasonal sighting of the player they celebrated above all others when London Welsh visit Billesley Common this weekend, as Chevvy Pennycook inches inexorably towards a return to first-team duty.

The 24-year-old swept the board, ceiling, floor and walls at Moseley’s awards ceremony last season after playing through a shoulder injury to lead the club’s charge to Championship safety.

Twenty-seven appearances, arguably most of them not in his best position, and five tries, including a last-minute plunge off the back of a scrum in a relegation play-off at Esher, cemented the Bristolian’s already lofty reputation among the Red and Black faithful.

Such endeavours made Pennycook the Players’ Player, Coaches’ Player and Supporters’ Player of the Year and there was no little relief when he decided to spurn the advances of British & Irish Cup finalists Bedford to remain with Mose.

However, those endeavours also took their toll and the surgeon could be kept at bay no longer as Pennycook had his labrum tended to at the end of May, eight months and 20 games after he initially hurt himself in the defeat at Nottingham.

And having missed out on much of pre-season, to say nothing of Moseley’s first five matches, only now is the indomitable back-rower ready to wreak his special brand of havoc on the second tier.

“I’ll have to sit down with the coaches to see how we manage it but if I am on the bench this weekend I will be pretty keen to get on,” Pennycook says.

“I will probably be a bit nervous, a bit anxious about the shoulder and not having played for a while. It will just be good to get the first full contact out of the way and after that it will all fall back into place.”

Pennycook’s return could not be better timed, except perhaps had it been for the first game of the season.

With Moseley’s effort levels unacceptably low at times in the last couple of games, the appearance of a player who doesn’t do half-hearted will send out a strong message to those who do.

Not that he is intending to rest on any laurels. He claims none of last season’s achievements matter a jot now: “I really enjoyed last season but you can’t keep looking back.

“It’s a new season now and a fresh sheet of paper. I have just got to let go of that and build my way back into the team starting from scratch. I want to get my shoulder going again, try and recreate that form and hopefully better it.”

That must also be the collective goal. At times this season, mostly in second halves when their situations have looked lost, Moseley have played some outstanding rugby with both width and direction.

Much of that is down to a change in emphasis and recruitment as first-year head coach Kevin Maggs has opted for a more adventurous style. It is not the only philosophical shift Pennycook has noticed.

“There’s a lot of change, a lot of it with Maggsy is attitude, things like getting to training early, doing your own prep and recovery. That’s been there in previous seasons but it’s just about trying to be a bit more professional. There’s lots of little things, we have got a new caterer, which is better than last year.

“Sometimes last year we would be having fish and chips the night before a game at the club. That’s not the sort of thing you should be eating the night before a game.

“And with (conditioning coach) Chris Kemp here, he is getting the boys a lot fitter, he is on their case the whole time. He is really motivating, keen to get them in and in better shape. It’s about bringing the best out of everybody.

“I know it’s a cliché but every game has got to be like a cup final. We have got to turn up and fight for everything.” And Pennycook leading the charge only makes that more likely.