From inspirers to carers – how England identify the leaders of the future
Hin trying to develop captains, the RFU challenges youngsters but also knows that influential figures come in different forms
Early into his tenure as head coach, Eddie Jones stated that England needed eight or nine leaders if they were to become a World Cup-winning team. Jones has never declared whether England have reached that threshold but his steadfast loyalty to Dylan Hartley and Owen Farrell as captains in spite of fluctuating form and fitness allows you to draw your own conclusion.
A key part of his “new England” project is to improve what he calls the “leadership density” behind Farrell in the changing room, having previously voiced concerns about the “sheltered” nature of modern academies.
A long-term strategy has also been drawn up by Conor O’shea, the Rugby Football Union’s director of performance, to ensure the “spoonfed” generation of academy players become the leaders of England’s future. Putting this vision into practice are Don Barrell, RFU head of performance pathways and programmes, and Alan Dickens, head coach of the England Under-20s.
A lot of what they preach may seem counter-intuitive, that “winning isn’t the most important thing”, “mistakes are critical” and “creating safe spaces”. For example, the England Under-18 side frequently tour South Africa in the summer. A couple of years ago, Barrell decided to send the Under-17 year group to face the Springboks’ Under-18s. “We wanted to give them a difficult experience where they would need to learn to adapt and learn to lose,” Barrell said. “Everything is targeted around challenge.”
When it comes to leadership, especially in a sporting context, a lot of people picture a bloodied Terry Butcher or a rousing Martin Johnson
speech, but research commissioned by the RFU shows that leadership is a much broader concept. There are roughly four categories players can fit into: inspirers such as Butcher or Johnson, role models who lead by their actions, tacticians who guide the team strategically, and coach-carers who go out of their way to help team-mates.
In England’s 2003 World Cupwinning side, there was the perfect blend: Johnson and Lawrence Dallaglio as inspirers, Jonny Wilkinson and Will Greenwood the tacticians, Richard Hill the role model and Jason Leonard the coach-carer.
“You need to be really careful that leadership is not the first one over the top with a fixed bayonet,” Barrell said. “A leader isn’t the person who shouts the loudest. Someone like Ted Hill [Worcester captain] had all the talent but was quiet. He is a phenomenal player, and now through his development has become a phenomenal leader, even though he is not a natural orator. He leads by actions and leads by caring.”
Dickens’s target is to find 32 leaders when his Under-20 squad for the Six Nations meet up on Sunday. The players will be asked to identify with the leaders they admire at their club. Unsurprisingly, back-rowers tend to be drawn to role models and fly-halves to tacticians.
There is a degree of overlap between the categories but very rarely does a player encapsulate all four qualities, which is why it is so important to cultivate multiple leaders. This often requires collaboration with clubs. For instance, last year Raffi Quirke, the scrum-half, was injured in the week before England Under-20s’ opening match. Rather than return to Sale, Quirke was allowed to remain in camp working on tactics and analysis, as well as being a coach-carer in supporting his team-mates.
Jack van Poortvliet, last year’s captain, was a special project for Dickens. “He came to us with the support from Leicester coaches with our clear focus, not just on onfield performance, but equally in setting the standards around the place,” Dickens said.
It is also necessary for Dickens and Barrell to understand and engage with the dynamics of those members of Generation Z who have never known a life without the internet. Research shows the average Gen Z’er (born 1997-2012) will spend more than 23 hours a week streaming video content, watching an average of 68 videos a day and receiving more than 3,000 texts. “A lot of that is alien to me but we have to adapt in order to get the attention of players,” Dickens said.
“A lot of these players come from schools or clubs where they are the top of the ladder. Then they make that jump out of schoolboy rugby into a professional environment and they are quite a few rungs down, so it is a big adjustment. I certainly think they are robust and can make decisions. A lot of it is about actually giving the players the opportunity to make those decisions.”
This is why the England agegrade teams are considered a “safe space” outside of their club environment, with the constant pressure of selection.
“We expect them to make mistakes, we want them to make mistakes,” Barrell said. “There is no penalty at that stage for getting things wrong. Clearly, when you’re at the top in the England senior teams, then mistakes are really costly. This is the place where you can start to flex the muscle of leadership before you get that opportunity in a club environment.
“Education is trying to coach kids to pass exams – we’re trying to do the opposite. We want to coach them to thrive in chaos. So, the traditional model of coaching is, I whistle, you run and pass. That’s of no value to developing players in the sense that it takes away any chance of autonomy to look ahead and make a decision. You can only find leaders by creating challenges.”