Jukes continuing his rugby education with Leeds Tykes
LEEDS TYKES winger Harry Jukes believes the club’s positive relationships with the city’s universities is only going to help strengthen their cause as they look to start a new era.
One of the first matters on director of rugby Phil Davies’s agenda when he returned almost 18 months ago was strengthening links with the rugby departments of Leeds Beckett University and the University of Leeds.
Having dropped the Yorkshire Carnegie name after relegation from the Championship was confirmed last April, the club is concentrating on re-establishing itself in the city after reverting to Leeds Tykes.
With Davies’s former Llanelli, Leeds and Wales team-mate Colin
Stephens in charge of Leeds Beckett and Pete Seabourne, the ex-Morley head coach, at the helm of University of Leeds, they have come together to help forge mutually beneficial pathways for players.
A number of talented students could feature when the 2021-22 National One season begins but Jukes is another example of the relationship working – alumni continuing to play if they stay and live in Leeds.
“I actually graduated from University of Leeds in 2018 and picked up a job in local civil engineering,” he said.
“But I kept in touch with Pete Seabourne, the head coach at the University of Leeds and, about 12 months ago, he said there was an opportunity here.
“I’ve been involved since then and – after restrictions were eased – have been training for the last six weeks. It’s a chance to play at a higher level and a lot of other guys from university will be able to make the most of it. We can see where it goes from there.”