The softer side of Kyle Sinckler
Kyle Sinckler was labelled an ‘emotional timebomb’ by Warren Gatland, but those who helped him on his remarkable journey know the real man
There is a defiant edge to Stacia Long’s voice when she offers her overriding memory of her former school pupil Kyle Sinckler. “If anyone wants to know Kyle’s true character then they should have seen his reaction if any of the other kids said anything about the fact they had a female coach.”
Speaking to Long, and others who have witnessed Sinckler’s ascent from the seven-year-old who turned up to his first rugby training session at Battersea Ironsides in a Manchester United kit to international superstar, via a scholarship at Epsom College and the Harlequins academy, it quickly becomes clear that there is a softer side to England’s wrecking ball.
As well as making coaches and fellow players laugh by insisting on wearing a No10 jersey that was much too small, Sinckler was always the first to put his arm around a struggling team-mate. He also had a passion – and talent – for drama.
But it is his bond with Long which is, perhaps, most revealing. The teacher was unsure of rugby’s laws when Sinckler and a small group of friends from Ironsides asked if she could organise a team at Graveney School.
A state school in Wandsworth, south-west London, with pupils drawn from a broad spectrum of socio-economic backgrounds, Graveney had never had a rugby team. However, Long – a talented former diver who won medals at national championships – had an interest in the sport through her husband and worked as a physiotherapist for her local club. She also could not turn down Sinckler’s request.
With Long still reading the rulebook, Sinckler – who would “often start at fly-half but jump in when we had a scrum” – advised his teacher on which of his team-mates would fit in at which positions and brief his side on the nuances of the game. Long is happy to admit that “in lots of ways Kyle was a bit like an assistant coach when I started the team”.
Sinckler and Long remain in regular contact. She texts him before every match and he still refers to her as “Miss”.
Like her former pupil, Long has come a long way since those early days. She has left Graveney and now combines teaching with roles as a Rugby Football Union coach educator, Harlequins academy education adviser and director of rugby at the Old Rutlishians club.
She gives the 25-year-old a lot of credit for her early development as a rugby coach – a point she is keen to underline, not least to counter the widely held perception of Sinckler as a firebrand.
“If you heard how protective he was about me, about the fact I was female, the fact I wasn’t reffing because I didn’t have the experience or whatever, that shows somebody’s true character,” she says. “That shows who he really is. That level of respect he showed someone he knew didn’t have a lot of rugby knowledge, he could have easily been disrespectful or say: ‘Can’t we get a coach who knows what they are talking about?’
“He was never like that. He
‘You want every young player to be fired up and playing with heart’
offered me support. If people say he is fired up, passionate and playing with heart, that is what you want from every young player.”
Sinckler’s attitude to a female coach reflects an upbringing in which his mother Donna was a strong influence. She decided that rugby could be a good outlet for her son, who had a tendency to get too physical on the football pitch.
“Donna was always on the sidelines and around the club. She is a rock for him,” says Ironsides president Richard Smith.
Just as Sinckler was protective of his teacher, those involved at Ironsides are fiercely proud of the boy who began his stellar rugby journey with them. “We are always going to be protective of him – it is like having people say bad things about your own son,” says Ciaran Bolger, the Ironsides junior coaching co-ordinator.
Bolger and Long remember Sinckler as a youngster who was willing to give a team-talk when
his side were struggling. This is a trait shared by England team-mate Owen Farrell, who would inspire his team-mates as a young teenager playing rugby league in Wigan.
Ironsides only established their mini and junior section in the mid-1990s but they now have more than 1,000 children on their books, making them the biggest minis club in the UK. Being a relatively new club, they were able to attract players such as Sinckler from non-traditional backgrounds – another reason they are so proud of their first England international.
“We are a tiny club with very little history. You look at how England players have come through the public school system and we are the opposite,” says Bolger. “People say, ‘How did that club get someone like Kyle?’ We didn’t turn him into an England player but we did something to him that ignited the fuse. We are so proud we’ve produced a stateschool boy who has gone that far.”
Long shares that sense of pride. “Kyle and the team were not ashamed that they were from a state school, they didn’t believe that meant they were in any way different from anybody else,” she says. “He always used to make sure that other people were not being disparaging towards state schools. They were fiercely protective that there shouldn’t be a class difference in sport and that rugby should be for everybody.”
Although Sinckler went to Epsom College for sixth form, Long believes he is the perfect role model for youngsters from outside elite public schools, particularly those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.
“There are not many black people playing rugby at the top level in this country,” she says. “We should be using Kyle as a role model to other people to say that those sorts of things must not stop you from getting involved in rugby.”