After a tough year Aspatria Hornets have secured the services of Kiwi Legend to lead the team.

Aspatria Hornets are pleased to announce that former Auckland Warriors Prop Forward Hitro Okesene has agreed to take over as the coach of the club.

The new coach played five times for the New Zealand national team and was also capped by Western Samoa and American Samoa. He played for Carlisle rugby league between 1989-92 and most notably the Auckland Warriors for three seasons between 1995-97.

He most recently played for Workington Town (2001-03) where he finished his career and has also coached local powerhouse, Ellenborough Rangers.

He will be assisted by Hornets' veterans Richard Holliday and Stewart Reynolds as the club look to bounce back from the recent lockdown and get back to playing competitive rugby again.

Okesene commented "I'm very happy to be taking over and hope that only good things will come, we have a lot of young players here and that can mean only good things for the future."

All at the club welcome Hitro and wish him the best of luck in his new role.

The team have said there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Following the announcement by Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, the club can confirm that we are making plans for the resumption of training and playing.

More details will be released in due course but they will start with the resumption of training before matches start later in the year.

Club spokesman, Keith Morley at the time said, “It is great to have a target to work towards. It has been fortunate that the majority of this last lockdown has been in the off-season so that we can still, hopefully, have a good season for all ages in 2021.'

Dozens of businesses and members of the community have played a pivotal role in getting a rugby club the pitch they need.