Why so many rugby players won't make it as a professional
Rugby Academies – Are clubs letting players throw away their education?
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“You grow up wanting this all your life, it finally happens and is then suddenly it’s ripped away, it’s horrible.”
For many aspiring young rugby players, to join an academy is the start of what could be a dream come true.
But for some, the years of literal blood sweat and tears they endure during training can amount to nothing. Speaking to David Williams, 21, a former Leicester Tigers academy prospect, it is clear to see that there is a flaw in the system. So many young men pour all of their efforts into the sport they love and are more often than not naturally gifted at, in the hope that they can fulfil their dream and become professional rugby players.
David started playing rugby at eleven years old, playing locally for Lutterworth Rugby club, who were often regarded as one of the best teams in Leicestershire. David was then accepted into the Leicester Tigers academy when he moved onto Wygeston and Queen Elizabeth the second college at 17 years old. The city centre college worked with the rugby club and most of the academy players attended there. “QE College designed their entire timetable around the tigers academy so we could make it to college after our morning training session.”
Living across the road from the Leicester City FC training ground, and on the same road as the clubs former player Muzzy Izzet, David grew up around sport, his father Nigel was a PE teacher, and was incredibly supportive of his sons’ avid interest in athletics and rugby, encouraging David’s natural ability to perform in nearly any sport.
David made it clear that he feels the academy affected his academic work, he said “It absolutely affected my studies, it was so exhausting, and it was hard to balance both rugby and college work.
Going from a typical 9-3 day at secondary school, to a 7am-9pm day at college was such a culture shock and really hard to get used to.”
A typical day for David Consisted of waking at 6am, arriving at the Oval Park training ground at 7am, being at college for 9am most days and then heading back the training ground from 6pm-8pmm, and getting home for around 9pm.
David was full of excitement when the opportunity arose for him to join the Leicester Tigers academy, stating “It was like a dream come true, especially because it coincided with joining college too.”
But after a while, he explains that the novelty soon wore off and the days began catching up with him, leaving him both mentally and physically exhausted.
“Some days I would get home and get really emotional, it was just exhausting for us all.”
He explained that in the 14-16 age group, 100 are competing for contracts at the academy, and only 15 actually receive the contracts for the academy. Out of those 15, he states around “75% are kept on the third and final year of the contract in the hope of getting a professional contract, but our year only 6 were offered the contract.”
After the two years, David himself was offered an extension of his contract for the third year, but unfortunately didn’t make it. Only 6% of academy prospects were offered a professional contract at the end of the three years at Leicester Tigers.
David is now studying accounting at Nottingham Trent University, and is plying his trade for the university team and the Nottingham Rugby team, who are currently in the championship of the Rugby Union.
“A lot the lads I played with came from really good backgrounds, and were generally really smart lads. But a lot of us have ended up at mediocre universities because there the coaches didn’t really place much emphasis on the importance of our education.”
“The coaches at the academy really didn’t care about our education, as far as they were concerned we were there to play rugby and that was it.”
David explains that the coaches would check that the academy players were attending college regularly, but he says, “As long as they knew we were going they didn’t care how well we did.”
After three years of being at the academy came to and end, David was given not support; they recommended he get an agent and offered no vocational or educational alternatives. “They said that they would help, but they never did. In the panic of it all I got an agent within a week and moved to wales to play for a local team there, I was living in a house on my own it wasn’t the best decision looking back at it.”
He explains that the academy structure needs to be changed, and that the clubs should prioritise academics a lot more. “It really needs to be more supportive, and hold academic, even vocational alternatives in higher regard.”
“You grow up wanting this all your life, it’s like a dream. Then it finally happens and is suddenly just ripped away from you, it’s horrible.”
Ben Lazenby Interview - Why some rugby players won’t make the cut
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“There is so much pressure put on rugby players early, but you can’t label players.”
Only six in a hundred will make it – if they’re lucky. Leicester Tiger academy players spend three years pouring their blood, sweat and tears into rugby, and over 90% have nothing to show for it at the end of their three years at the academy. Many of these young men end up neglecting their education in order to focus on their rugby, and it can impact studies.
Ben Lazenby, 36, is a former player for Keighley Cougars and the Academy Programme Manager at fellow rugby union club Yorkshire Carnegie Rugby Club based in Headingly, Leeds and he understands how important it is for young rugby prospects to value their education as much as they do rugby.
Ben endures the difficulty of identifying and developing young talent on a daily basis, and oversees the academy development for the club, currently playing in the rugby union championship.
“It’s important to remember that rugby is a late development sport, and so not all players will be great from the start.”
What makes Yorkshire Carnegie an interesting club is that although they are currently playing in the RFU Championship, they are a Premiership team, and so they receive funding like the other big clubs such as Tigers, Wasps and Saracens. Carnegie were relegated alongside Bristol last year and so dropped into the second tier of union rugby, but still operate like a club playing at the highest level.
They say rugby is a violent sport, but nothing can prepare the young men hoping to become professionals for the heartbreak they feel when they are let go from their academies.
But Ben and his fellow staff at Yorkshire Carnegie hold a player centred approach to the way they run the academy, who are three-time Yorkshire Cup winners and three-time National Division One champions.
The clubs academy players join when they leave secondary school, and often carry on with education whilst they are in the academy.
“80% of our players will go to schools that we work with in order to make sure they players are doing well academically.” He said, “We have a dedicated education advisor at the club that helps the lads choose if they want study BTEC or A-Levels.”
Education should be held in such high regard by clubs because of the knock on effect it also has within the schools that the players attend. Because academy level players are playing with regular students the overall standard increases. Ben said, “Having academy players in schools helps, it rubs off on to the students.”
But not only does Ben and the club focus on ensuring their academy players are attending school and focusing on school, but they also think long term and hold the players wants and needs in high regard.
“Most players post 18 won’t get offered a professional contract because they’re so young, so they either need to go into work or university.” He said, “Ideally we to keep it career based, so they’re always in rugby.”
The club offer coaching to their players as a means of a vocational route and it allows them to also stay in a rugby environment should they get offered a part time contract once they turn 18. Ben reveals that several of their players post 18 have gone into coaching, one is a games keeper and another has gone into marketing.
An encouraging sign is that Ben believes there has been a change in attitudes towards how important clubs value their player’s education over recent years. He said, “The landscape has changed in the last few years, more clubs balance the priority between education and rugby.”
But you can only lead a horse to water; you can’t force it to drink. It is unfair to believe that clubs aren’t doing enough to help their players receive a good education, I certainly though that this was the case previously.
It is entirely down to the individual whether they choose to follow the advice and guidance they are given at the club, and luckily many do.
Ben explains that the club always want what is best for the player, and will always respect the player’s needs and decisions.
“As a club, you can’t neglect school, if you do you are doing them (the player) a disservice.) He said. A key to part of the academy process is keeping the player interested and thriving, and at Yorkshire Carnegie, “The last thing we want is for rugby to feel like a chore.” He emphasises that players need the flexibility that education can offer, as it allows them to live normal lives outside of rugby.
