Deciding between nutrition plans

[Tyrone]

Age: 22
Height: 6ft
Weight: 205lb
Bodyfat: ~27%

Squat: 292lb
Bench: 151lb
Press: 105lb
Deadlift: 375lb
(weights are 5RM, are odd due to conversion from kg)

Progression is 2.75lb a session for press/bench, 11lb once a week for deadlifts, 5.5lb a session for squats.
Current rate of weight gain is about 4lb a week. Eating somewhere between 4000-4500 calories a day. Haven't tracked macros before, but todays will be approximately 200p/500c/150f which is think is fairly typical.

Before your posts, I was under the impression I had to keep gaining to continue novice progression. I'd like to switch to reducing weight if possible but I'm only just about hitting each rep as it is. My previous plan was to continue to put on weight for a month or two, then spend 3 months on a fairly large deficit (eating ~1500 calories which for me was ~0.5lb lost per day when I was 185lb).

I wanted to play rugby when I start university in 5 months and hoped to optimise my body composition and conditioning for that purpose - with the knowledge I'll likely still be both weaker and fatter than I'd like in that time.

My question is, is this a bad approach and should I instead go for something like 200p/200c/80f (2300 calories) over the period of 5 months? Will I be able to progress at the same rate? If it's helpful, I didn't lose any strength while I lost 22lb on 1500 calories but I was never able to progress either.

Thank you for you time

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Finish your LP with weight gain (you have 2-3 months left) then spend the next 2 months doing some more intermediate type programming + conditioning to get ready for rugby. You should never be eating 1500 calories a day. Ever.

[Tyrone]

Thank you, will do.