StormCast Episode 22: Rais Francis looking to the future

Rais Francis says he is focussed and improving as a player as he enjoys his second season with the club - but is still aiming high.

The Nottingham-born forward enjoyed a great first year in Storm colours and is looking to see the team push on after a memorable campaign.

And he admits the thought of representing his country is one he aspires to, but knows there is work to do in able to achieve it.

Playing for GB is certainly something I would love to do,

he said on the latest episode of StormCast.

With Great Britain, there are a lot of top players so from my perspective, all I can do is keeping working hard, improving day by day and showing what I can do in this league.

For me, I’m not going to put numbers on anything. Success for me is all about improving and developing as well as improve on my contribution to the team.

As a team, we’re looking to win and anyone who says differently is kidding themselves.  We showed we had the potential to do that last season so I see no reason why can’t push on this year.

Rais also discussed his career path and a route that’s taken him from Nottingham to Manchester the long way round so far.

And he spoke of the major differences he experienced in North America to when he returned home to play in the Elite League.

He added:

For me, my time in North America was with the goal of playing professional ice hockey and I felt going to university was really good. I left when I was 15 so I’d been away for a long time.

I’d spent nine seasons away and I remember originally, when Manchester had become an option, I was ecstatic to be given that chance in the Motorpoint Elite League.

I wanted to take that opportunity by the horns and give it everything I possibly could so coming in, I was aware it was only the beginning.

I knew there was a lot of work to be done and I really wanted to try and solidify myself within this team and the organisation.

In college, you play about 20-30 games a year and I ended up playing over 60 last year so the number of games was definitely different.  It was a step up, but as the season went on I got more confident and figured out more about my game.

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By: Craig Anderson