From pitch to the pavement
EARLIER this year, the hottest prospects in English rugby were sent a postcode and a time by the RFU’s head of international player development Dean Ryan telling them where and when to report for a secret mission. No other information was given.
They were to leave the comfort of their club environments and be exposed to a radically different world.
As an antidote to the ego trip that is professional sport for a talented teenager, the destination was jarring. The postcode was for the Passage refuge in Victoria, the task to spend three days helping London’s homeless.
On the first night they patrolled the streets with the police seeing the problem through their eyes; the next day they went out with social workers and their drug outreach colleagues. They also cooked for the homeless and chatted to them.
Ted Hill, who made his senior England debut against Japan in the autumn, was one of the players who took part.
“We talked to the homeless people about how they got into that situation and how they are aiming to get out of it. All of them have a different story,” he said.
“Some of them are pretty harsh so I think you have to look on them with sympathy. I look at them and understand where they come from now.”
Tom Willis, the Wasps hooker, was also involved.
“It made me a lot more aware of how it can happen to anyone,” he said. “For some of them it was one missed pay cheque and they were on the streets.
They are just normal people, most of them, who have come across bad times. It made me a lot more empathetic.” Afterwards the players took part in a mocked-up panel show where each one was required to give an opinion on homelessness, having been exposed to it first-hand.
“It is a very complex problem. We chose it because we all have an opinion on homelessness even if we haven’t brought it to the front of our minds,” said Ryan. “For a 19-year-old, who had been wrapped in cotton wool, opening up tents to try to get people in was quite an eye-opener.
“It’s one of those things that once you see, you can’t unsee.
“I was blown away by the number of homeless people and the scale of it, I was blown away by the passion of those people who work in that space just to help people.
“There is a bigger societal picture here which a brief immersion – no matter how powerful – or a donation during the festive season cannot hope to address.”
The bigger picture as far as the players are concerned is in having experiences that fill a leadership and communication void that the game’s professionalism and the cosseted academy systems have inadvertently created.
Ryan, whose own England career was preceded by a dose of real life in the army, has set up an innovative programme whereby the next generation are exposed, three times a year, to challenges in the outside world that help to develop them as people.
As well as the homeless visit, they have trained with riot police, presented to an assembly at an underperforming school and lived together in a Big Brother-style house.
“Quite often they will go away from these things thinking, ‘I don’t quite know what that was about’ but that disturbance is where we think it has real value,” said Ryan.
“Rugby becomes quite safe for them. It doesn’t necessarily build the skills they may require in the future
“We wanted to utilise the camps to look at their own personal growth and see if we can upskill them in areas that the onset of professionalism has removed them from.
“In simple terms that is providing them with some real-life experiences.
“I’d like to think we’re adding some value to the people who have the best opportunity to play for England in the future.”