Meet the England coach who got £50k out of Gary Neville on Dragons’ Den!
JOE GRAY is the only man to have won every domestic trophy available to a professional player in English rugby, but that barely tells half his story.
After retiring 18 months ago, the former hooker now combines coaching work with Steve Borthwick’s England alongside a thriving business venture which earlier this month saw him and his wife and business partner Lottie appear on Dragons’ Den.
The couple secured an investment of £100,000 — half of which was provided by former Manchester United defender and entrepreneur Gary neville — in their company MyoMaster.
Gray, who won one England cap in a 16-year career, was used to success on the field. now, while still staying involved in rugby, he is triumphing off it too.
‘I’ve been fortunate to do some massive things in my life,’ Gray tells Mail Sport. ‘I’ve played in full stadiums like Twickenham and Eden Park and represented my country. But Dragons’ Den
was by far the most nervous I’ve ever been! We were in there for three and a half hours being hammered! It was unbelievably intense, way harder than presenting to Steve or working with England. You have to remember everything in the Den. At least with England I have slides!’
Gray is a workaholic. He and Lottie have grown MyoMaster — a business which sells a range of fitness recovery products — into a company which turned over £1.2million last year. neville and fellow Dragon Sara Davies invested £50,000 each. That was followed by a cash injection of £120,000 from Google.
Manchester United and AFC Wimbledon are among clients who use MyoMaster’s products. So do international rugby sides England, Scotland and Georgia and a host of clubs from the Gallagher Premiership. Chelsea’s Raheem Sterling is a big fan.
Gray’s career saw him lift silverware 11 times. He played for northampton, Harlequins and Saracens. It was a miracle he even did so. Aged 17, Gray suffered a horror knee injury playing for nottingham that almost derailed his rugby career before it began.
‘My knee hit the ground but I fell on my ankle which ended up under my armpit,’ Gray says. ‘My knee fully dislocated and I ruptured all four ligaments, tore all the cartilage, and bent the artery. They thought I’d lose my leg because in that situation the artery normally ruptures and you have to be amputated from the knee down.
‘You don’t normally see those sorts of injuries unless someone has been in a car crash. I was in hospital for a month and had two big surgeries. The specialist said I’d never run again, I’d walk with a limp, and that rugby was over.
‘I had 15 operations in total in my career. My knees are like dust now and I’m pretty old and sore for a 35- year- old. Thankfully I came back from it and had an amazing career I’m really proud of.’
While many would have given up, Gray redoubled his efforts. He started coaching at northampton School for Boys. And after returning to fitness and enjoying success with Harlequins, it was another spell on the sidelines which laid the platform for the launch of MyoMaster.
‘I was out with a broken thumb and I was doing a lot of running which gave me really bad achilles tendonitis,’ Gray explains.
‘I’d done a night-time carpentry course and when I was at home doing my house up, I noticed a wood jigsaw cutter had exactly the same motion as the expensive shockwave therapy I was having at the time.
‘I welded a rubber stool leg on to the cutter and used it on my achilles. It had the same effect as the shockwave therapy. I took it into Harlequins training the next day. I started using it and the boys destroyed me. Joe Marler and Kyle Sinckler said: “Why are you drilling your own leg?”
‘I went out of the changing room for half an hour to go for a run and when I came back, I could hear the noise of the drill going. All the boys were using it. Kyle got cash out straight away and bought it! He paid way over the odds so on the way home, I bought a new jigsaw from B&Q and made another one. By the end of the week I had seven orders! That was the start of MyoMaster.’
After redefining the prototype, Gray and his wife launched MyoMaster in 2019 — the same year he helped Saracens to a Premiership and Champions Cup double. He said: ‘It was a pretty busy year: we won the double, launched the business, and had our son Otis!
‘You’ve got to be prepared to try things in life. I wasn’t the best rugby player in the world but one thing I am is a grafter. That’s why I played in all the big games. I work hard and as a hooker, I was very solid at the fundamentals — scrum and line-out. I try to bring the same attitude to business.’