‘Dealing with the criticism is hard when you see your children upset’
Directors of rugby tell Daniel Schofield of the challenges in taking on an ‘infinite’ workload
As the unceremonious dismissal of Matt O’connor as Leicester head coach on Monday night demonstrates, life at the helm of a rugby club can be as brutal and unpredictable as that of a trawler captain in the Bering Sea.
Going on the turnover of past seasons, three more directors of rugby or head coaches are likely to be tossed overboard before the end of the season. John Kingston was among those to lose their jobs last season as his 17-year association with Harlequins came to an inglorious end.
When he was a director of rugby with Richmond at the dawn of professionalism, Kingston’s duties included making sure the kit was cleaned and the balls were pumped. By the time he succeeded Conor O’shea in the top job at Quins in 2016, the roles and responsibilities of a DOR had expanded exponentially, not least because rugby clubs have grown enormously. Playing squads have doubled while off-field staff have swelled from around 25 to 125.
“You are overseeing the academy, the strength and conditioning, recruitment, and you need to communicate with the community, media and commercial departments – everyone needs a piece of you,” Kingston said. “It is all-embracing. You are on a treadmill all the time. There’s no time to think. You are absorbed in what you are trying to achieve.”
The role varies greatly from club to club. Leicester operated without a nominal director of rugby, while Kingston’s position has since been allocated to Paul Gustard as head of rugby and Billy Millard as general manager, in an American sportsstyle system. Some, such as Gustard, are hands-on coaches, while Newcastle’s Dean Richards and Gloucester’s David Humphreys are rarely on the training field.
What they all have in common is ultimate responsibility for results and a workload that never shrinks. “The job is fairly infinite in that you can find more work to do,” said Nick Kennedy, who was forced out at London Irish’s director of rugby last season.
Rob Baxter, Exeter’s DOR said: “There’s always another game to watch, another target to look at, an on-loan academy player you can watch. It is a case of what stage do you decide to ease off and watch an hour of TV before you go to bed.”
Days off do not exist for Dors during the season. Even the players’ rest day will be filled with
meetings ranging from recruitment to pacifying a tetchy chief executive.
“I couldn’t tell you how many hours I do, but safe to say they would be through the roof,” Todd Blackadder, Bath’s director of rugby, said. “When you come into it from a rugby background, you probably don’t realise 95 per cent of it has nothing to do with the grass whatsoever.”
Everyone has their own switching-off mechanisms. Baxter will jump on a Wattbike to “numb the mind”, while Blackadder looks to go horse riding or mountainbiking. Even then it can be difficult to completely clear the head.
“I don’t think I am ever not thinking about rugby,” Blackadder said. “I am never not having a conversation with someone, responding to a message, thinking about selection.”
Advancements in modern communications mean that while phones are on, they are always buzzing, even in nominal downtime, while the advent of social media and message boards means criticism has become far more visceral and personal.
Both Blackadder and Kingston banned their daughters from searching for their names online, a rule that was invariably breached. “I would be sitting in the house somewhere and one of them would put their arm around me and say, ‘Are you all right, Dad?’” Kingston said. “I would say, ‘Have you been reading crap about me online again?’ Dealing with criticism is not hard for me – I can take it. It is, when you see your children upset.”
Increasingly, that abuse is no longer hurled from the anonymity of the internet. After a Challenge Cup defeat by Edinburgh in January 2017, which marked a first home loss in his opening season in charge, Kingston was talking to his teenage daughter when he a spectator began haranguing him. “He was swearing and I said, ‘Do you mind? Even if you have a view, this is my daughter and I am talking to her’,” Kingston said. “I was disgusted by that. My daughter went home and was visibly upset.”
Kingston took the trouble to track down the perpetrator and organised a meeting face-to-face, in which the loudmouth suddenly lost his tongue. Blackadder, too, has been on the receiving end of supporters’ invective.
“There were a couple of incidents last year when members of the public were abusing us,” Blackadder said. “It is disgraceful behaviour. That sort of stuff does have an effect. Whether you like us or you don’t like us, we are trying to do the best job we can, at times under difficult circumstances.”
There is no equivalent body to the League Managers’ Association. It is up to Dors to build their own support system. In Kingston’s case, that was Pieter Kruger, Harlequins’ in-house psychologist.
For Kennedy, it was Brendan Venter, Irish’s coaching consultant. Baxter uses his wife, Jo, as his main sounding board. Kingston believes the RFU or Premiership Rugby should look to formalise an independent support network.
These men are not looking for sympathy. Having been thrown off the horse, Kingston is refreshed and looking for his next ride. Kennedy, who is assisting the England Under-18 team, is also ready to go again. “Everyone understands that as rugby clubs get bigger and bigger, the role gets bigger and bigger,” Kennedy said. “At the same time, we are very lucky to be in those roles.”
Yet at a time when player welfare is at the top of many people’s agenda, it is also worth considering the well-being of those who occupy a sometimes rewarding but always precarious and immensely challenging position.
“If you think of what coaches and players go through every week, we live in a bipolar world,” Blackadder said. “When you win, it is fantastic. When you lose, you are at rock-bottom and no one hurts more when you lose than the director of rugby. If you are like that your whole career, then it is going to have an effect.”