Rugby ‘should tap gridiron talent pool’
JOE BYRNES finds an increasing link between two top Transatlantic sports
“There are things to learn but definitely transferable skills”
While former England U20s skipper Alex Gray is flying the flag for rugby in the NFL, Richmond hope to reap the benefits of turning an American Football player into a new breed of modern second rower.
Harry Innis is attempting to come the other way. At 6ft 7in and weighing 120kg (18st 12lb) of lean muscle, Innis also has the speed of an outside back with a recorded time of 4.65 seconds over 40 yards.
Despite being born in Bromley, Innis grew up with American Football as his first love and it took him across the world from Orpington to Germany, via stints in New Mexico and Finland. But it wasn’t until NFL UK began growing their international player development programme that he got his big shot.
Having trained with the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars Innis ultimately failed to make the high grade in the NFL. But after watching the Netflix documentary Pacific Warriors, Innis, 28, was inspired to try rugby. An introductory stint in France didn’t work out so he fired out emails to clubs in England and Steve Hill was first to reply.
Innis told The Rugby Paper: “I was brought up on American Football because my dad was a huge Chicago Bears fan and my grandad also used to travel back and forth to Chicago a lot. He brought me back a Walter Payton jersey and ever since I was old enough to understand what it meant I fell in love.
“We were the guinea pigs for this system,” he continued. “They’ve moved on the programme this year and brought in guys like Alex Gray. But one of the big things I learned when I was out there, sport is run more as a business than a sport; the bigger a sport gets the more business-like it is and therefore has to be a lot more ruthless and cut throat.
“I couldn’t have found anywhere better to fall into than Richmond – they have really tried to nurture me into a rugby player. I feel if I had been anywhere else I wouldn’t have got the time and coaching they’ve given me and they’ve really tried to pull something out of me.”
The reduced emphasis on positional specialisation and pre-meditated plays have been difficult to get to grips with but he’s learning.
Innis said: “One of the biggest transitions I’ve had to learn playing rugby is the ball can come at any time, but it’s still all about leverage and they have a saying in American Football that ‘the lowest man wins’. It’s the same in rugby in any form of contact situation.
“As a tight end or wide receiver, I don’t carry the ball like a traditional rugby player of my size. You don’t see many players of my size and stature move like I do so it’s kind of opened up another dynamic there. So while there’s things to learn, there are definitely transferable skills.”
Innis says more American Football players are starting to view rugby as a legitimate alternative should they not quite make it to the NFL.
“Specific positions will make the transition quite easily. Guys like linebackers, running backs tight ends and safeties because their skill sets are transferable. There’s a genuine interest in other players I know to make that transition but they sometimes don’t know how to make it. Under the right circumstances players would be lining up.”
Twelve months into the switch and it’s starting to click for Innis.
“I want to enjoy it and be competitive at a high level which means I need to keep learning and working. I feel very fortunate to have fallen out of one sport I love dearly and into another one and enjoy it as much as I have. I can’t see myself going back to American Football,” he said.
First step is to break into Richmond’s Championship team but with battles against the likes of Oxford University last week and a B&I Cup bench berth this weekend versus Ealing, he’s undeniably moving in the right direction, and potentially blazing a trail for practitioners of American Football to follow in the future.