Southgate and Neville have some unlikely challengers
Trio of coaches from a Yorkshire rugby union team enjoy success story to rival big names, writes Daniel Schofield
porting glory comes in different forms. Two of the abiding images of the year were mass pile-ons of redshirted England players after the netball team’s unexpected triumph at the Commonwealth Games, followed by the celebrations that marked the penalty shoot-out victory against Colombia in the Fifa World Cup.
As such, the teams’ respective coaches, Tracey Neville and Gareth Southgate, have been nominated for UK Coaching’s award for great coaching moment of the year. Completing the shortlist are the trio of Kris Stafford, Stephen Quinn and Harrison Marshall. Unless you hail from certain parts of West Yorkshire, it is unlikely that their names will ring many bells, but that does not render their achievements any less impressive.
Together they coach Old Otliensians, an amateur rugby union team in the Yorkshire division who are made up almost exclusively of alumni of Prince Henry’s Grammar School in Otley. As chairman Ben Featherstone explains, everyone in the town has a relative who went to the school and so possesses a connection to the club.
Last season, they embarked on a run of results that could serve as the next chapter for the Mighty Ducks franchise, winning promotion from Yorkshire Three as well as the Yorkshire Silver Trophy to qualify for the RFU Junior Vase.
Round by round they progressed, and for their semi-final against Eccleshare they attracted more than 800 fans.
And, so, to the final against South Molton and a first trip to Twickenham in the club’s history. At 5am, people were queuing outside
‘Somehow we captured the hearts and minds of the people of Otley’
Otley bus station for the journey south.
They did not travel in vain. On one of those glorious afternoons when every part of Twickenham seems to be gleaming, Old Otliensians sparkled in the sunshine. The coaches’ playing philosophy is more in line with Super Rugby than the club’s stick-it-up-your-jumper traditions and that showed. Their second try, scored by William Eaves, featured a piece of midfield interplay slicker than anything England have managed this year. They ran out 32-21 winners, but that was just the start of the celebrations.
Supporters had hired out nearby Twickenham RFC and by the time the players arrived, a free bar had been paid for. “We drank and drank and shared stories of the day,” head coach Stafford said. “We did what rugby players are famous for, making fools of ourselves and being tucked up in bed by 10pm.”
They were also treated to an open-top bus parade when they got back to Otley. “Somehow we captured the hearts and minds of the people of Otley and really brought the town together,” Stafford said.
In a week in which the future of the Lions has been sabotaged by the avarice of English rugby’s main stakeholders extending the season to 11 months, disingenuously hidden by the fig leaf of “player welfare”, this is a pertinent reminder of how much rugby can still be a force for good, especially in small communities.
The winner will be decided by a public vote on the website of UK Coaching Awards. Regardless of the result, Marshall is hoping to cross paths with Southgate and Neville. “It is surreal to be nominated alongside them and I would love to share notes with them,” Marshall said. “It would be fascinating to see what life is like on the other side of the fence.”
Given that Marshall has won a trophy, maybe Southgate should be seeking him out.