LONDON CALLING
A mere drop-kick from Twickenham Stadium, rugby union's high temple in south-west London, there can be found an alternative attraction for an increasing number of Londoners, interested in rugby of a different kind. The Stoop, home of Harlequins Rugby League, is their Mecca, and Head Coach Brian McDermott has made it his mission to nurture and harvest the blooming local talent, which for so long has been in the
shade.
"It is bearing fruit, but it needs a lot of tending and fertilizer and watering every single day," suggests McDermott. "We are not there yet." The ex-Royal Marine is proud of what is being done, though he knows that the hard work is only just beginning.
"I have been given a great opportunity down here - I'm coaching probably the most important team in Super League," the former Bradford Bulls prop continues. "In the last few years the work has totally consumed my life and my family's life, but it's a great job.
"We have to crack rugby league down here and make it big, so as to produce our own. It is a dream and ambition of mine to win the Grand Final or the Challenge Cup and have a captain with a cockney accent on television."
New director Keith Hogg, who took the reins from Wigan-bound Ian Leneganin October, has the same vision. He says: "This club is more than capable of winning Super League in the next five years, and the heart of the team will be made up of players from London and the south. It will not happen overnight, but we must not lose sight of that goal."
The new licences, which stipulate that at least 10 club-trained players must be in the squad by 2012, will be a boon not only to development in the south, but the game in general. Hogg adds: "The introduction of the licence means we now have a lot more focus and support for the development of rugby league players in the London region. This is very important for the growth of the sport."
Attempts to establish rugby league in London, away from the northern heartland, are nothing new. In 1930 three clubs - London Highfield, Acton and Willesden and Streatham and Mitcham - briefly sparkled before folding after a year. The problems in developing the game in the south have always been the same: higher capital; local competition with the more popular football and rugby union; and imported players, from up the M1 and M6 or abroad, who find it difficult to adjust and commit long term.
In the 1980s, after a gap of half a century when league was played exclusively in the north, Fulham Football Club introduced a rugby league sister team. Former Widnes skipper Reg Bowden became player-coach and Fulham enjoyed an impressive first season. But a decade of struggle on and off the pitch followed. The next reincarnation was as the London Crusaders in 1991, before Australian APL club Brisbane Broncos bought
them out three years later.
The London Broncos were invited by the RFL to be part of the inaugural Super League in 1996, and with a number of Antipodeans and a large kitty, the club were a success, finishing Super League runners-up in 1997 and Challenge Cup finalists in 1999. However, when Lenegan bought the Broncos in 2005 and rebranded the club Harlequins, the sister club of the famous union team, he wanted to focus on producing local talent.
Erstwhile coach Tony Rea, who starred for the Broncos in that first Super League season, had a big hand in altering the blueprint of importing expensive players, and those foundations have been built upon by McDermott, who replaced the Australian in July 2006.
This season, the first team squad of 25 can now boast six young Londoners, and there are many more working their way up through the academy. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Michael Worrincy, both 22, and 21-year-old Tony Clubb are the cream of the current crop. Prop or second row McCarthy-Scarsbrook, in particular, has fast become a cult hero at The Stoop. Aside from the vast amount of replica shirts he sells,
McCarthy-Scarsbrook has been mooted as a future England international, though his impressive start to Super League XIII has been curtailed by a broken wrist.
Born on the Isle of Dogs, the ebullient McCarthy-Scarsbrook enjoyed flinging himself between football posts for the South of England XI until he was 16 when a schoolmaster introduced him and classmate Worrincy to league, and they caught the bug. "Back then I was a fat kid wearing a scrum hat, and had my hands on backwards," grins the player who McDermott now calls 'the Enforcer'. "Four years ago I wouldn't have dreamt I would be been playing Super League rugby with Quins. As a Londoner it is awesome to be playing for the club."
He is positive that the game is being offered to an increasing number of locals, and the quality in the Academy is proof that things are improving. "You can feel the buzz around Harlequins, with London kids wanting to play," he continues. "That buzz wasn't around a few years ago, when we were looking for the Australians to come over. But now if you look at the Academy you can see that there is an abundance of talent
coming through. We should have a full London team within the next couple of years!"
The man at the coalface in charge of unearthing local talent is 37-year-old Phil Jones, who McDermott chiefly credits for the success of the Academy. "Phil, our player performance manager, has put in an immense amount of work over the last six or seven years," says McDermott. "If we can keep these youngsters at the club and interested, I believe we can have a genuine conveyor belt at this club."
Jones, who joined the Broncos a decade ago, has now developed a scouting network monitoring youths in London and the Home Counties for Harlequins and has vastly improved the Academy and scholarship programmes. Though there has been success in the form of Londoners in the first team, Jones believes that disseminating the game to the very young is paramount to producing future McCarthy-Scarsbrooks.
"It isn't a vast pool," he suggests. "We have only dipped our foot in the water these last two years. Our seven scouts watch a whole range of age groups - from 13 to 20-year olds. But at this fledgling stage the young ones are very important. We need to encourage those kids to keep playing rugby league.
"Success breeds success and the system is shown to be working as we are getting numbers in the first team. That we have locals in the team is a big recruitment tool for us. It is starting to change the mindset of the lads in the Academy as they can see what, with a lot of hard work, they could achieve.
"It's hugely satisfying and exciting when one of our guys breaks into the first team. I'm as nervous as they are - I want them to do really well. And it's good for the crowd - they are a lot more forgiving and encouraging, as they want to see local lads do well."
In March, two of Quins' youngsters - centre Darren Reed and prop Olsi Krasniqi - represented England U16s in two Tests against France. Joe Mbu, now 24, was the last player from the club to play at U16 level for England. "It's not the be all and end all, but it is a good indication that things are improving," offers Jones.
"Certainly more people are being exposed to rugby league in London now - there are more people playing in clubs down here than ever before. We are starting to bear the fruits, but in four or five years you can imagine it will be completely transformed, just by the amount of activity that is going on.
"If you look at the gene pool in London - the diverse ethnicity, the size of Londoners - if it is handled correctly, a long way down the line, we might be producing lots of players for the rest of the country as well as ourselves."
Jones believes that hard-working McDermott is key to the success of the talent production line. He regularly watches over scholarship programmes and the academy training sessions, as well as providing workshops and seminars to support London coaches. "Tony (Rea) started the process, but Brian has chased it on to another level," Jones says.
"He is very positive, and always wants to know about how the lads are playing, which is exciting. For example, in the close season we had a scholarship camp for 13 to 16-year- olds and Brian came down to all but two of the 15 training sessions, which pushed the coaches and therefore the kids. I don't know if that is on offer anywhere else.
"I think that interaction and support for the coaches has brought the other London clubs closer to us. They want to get their players into the Harlequins Academy. Everyone is working towards one vision and we want to make Harlequins into a really successful club."
And 38-year-old McDermott, whose contract is due to expire at the conclusion of the current season, is fully committed to the cause. His team have, with the help of the six southern youngsters, impressed this season, and if it weren't for injuries to pivotal players they would be higher up the Super League.
His tireless stamina and determined attitude is epitomised on the field by captain and loose forward Rob Purdham - another player, along with McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Rikki Sheriffe ("one of the three best wingers in the country"), touted by McDermott to be in with a shout of boarding England's World Cup plane to Australia in October.
"I would take Rob to war, and I would follow him to war," says McDermott. "He is a great leader for the boys. He is very like Jamie Peacock, in that he provides tackle busts, offloads and try passes. He can break games for us."
Down the line, McDermott does not rule out the possibility of becoming England head coach - the position currently held by Tony Smith, who he worked under as assistant at Leeds Rhinos before moving south - though for now he is more than happy with his London gig. "I would be hugely proud to be in charge of the national team, though I don't think it will ever happen," he continues. "It is just a fuzzy thought when I have my cup of tea now and then.
"I have to earn my stripes to stand a chance. First I have to produce a conveyor belt of talent in London, and secondly I want to win a competition with Quins. I have invested my guts down here for the past two years and I will be seeing my end through whatever. While I am here the job will have all I can give.
"At the start of the season we made some internal goals, targets that are higher than you might think, so as to push ourselves. But we have come up against teams in the top four and we've been beaten comfortably. When we have stepped into the ring with the big boys, we haven't shown up or done the business, which has been disappointing. If we are successful on the pitch everything else will be a success too - the crowds, sponsorship and interest in the game down south."
There is no doubting his passion for the task - he signs off every match-day programme column with 'Be proud of rugby league in London ... I am'. With McDermott at the helm, and everyone pulling the same way at Harlequins, his dream of hearing a winning cockney captain on television could happen sooner than you think.
FIVE YOUNG QUINS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Tony Clubb
12.06.1987
Centre / Wing
BM: “Tony might not be the tallest bloke, but he is big and muscular. He has got a decent amount of speed and skill too. Unlike most of the young fellas, who are sometimes timid, I’m almost reining in his aggression. He will be in with a shout for international honours in the future.”
Michael Worrincy
16.02.1986
Prop / Loose forward
BM: “Mike was one of the first to stand up against Bradford at Odsal. He’s a big, strong lad and he made some important try-saving tackles and carries. He has a bit of seniority about him, and good rugby league awareness, which is encouraging.”
Will Sharp
13.05.1986
Centre / Wing
BM: “Will is as mad as a hatter, a cracking guy. Put him on the field with the ball in his hand and he will not stop running. He runs his heart out, earns lots of yards. You need people to step up and do the ugly stuff and he is one of those.”
Lamont Bryan
04.12.1988
Centre / Full back
BM: “Lamont is a great character but has not had a chance yet, though I dare say he will do at some point this year. He has got speed and he’s immensely powerful. He’s got a promising career ahead – with hard work and application he will make it.”
Joe Walsh
13.01.1988
Prop / Loose forward
BM: “Joe has been brave enough to make the trip down from the north and he will be a better player and person for it, getting out of the comfort zone. He has had a couple of games for us but his time will definitely come.”
A mere drop-kick from Twickenham Stadium, rugby union's high temple in south-west London, there can be found an alternative attraction for an increasing number of Londoners, interested in rugby of a different kind. The Stoop, home of Harlequins Rugby League, is their Mecca, and Head Coach Brian McDermott has made it his mission to nurture and harvest the blooming local talent, which for so long has been in the
shade.
"It is bearing fruit, but it needs a lot of tending and fertilizer and watering every single day," suggests McDermott. "We are not there yet." The ex-Royal Marine is proud of what is being done, though he knows that the hard work is only just beginning.
"I have been given a great opportunity down here - I'm coaching probably the most important team in Super League," the former Bradford Bulls prop continues. "In the last few years the work has totally consumed my life and my family's life, but it's a great job.
"We have to crack rugby league down here and make it big, so as to produce our own. It is a dream and ambition of mine to win the Grand Final or the Challenge Cup and have a captain with a cockney accent on television."
New director Keith Hogg, who took the reins from Wigan-bound Ian Leneganin October, has the same vision. He says: "This club is more than capable of winning Super League in the next five years, and the heart of the team will be made up of players from London and the south. It will not happen overnight, but we must not lose sight of that goal."
The new licences, which stipulate that at least 10 club-trained players must be in the squad by 2012, will be a boon not only to development in the south, but the game in general. Hogg adds: "The introduction of the licence means we now have a lot more focus and support for the development of rugby league players in the London region. This is very important for the growth of the sport."
Attempts to establish rugby league in London, away from the northern heartland, are nothing new. In 1930 three clubs - London Highfield, Acton and Willesden and Streatham and Mitcham - briefly sparkled before folding after a year. The problems in developing the game in the south have always been the same: higher capital; local competition with the more popular football and rugby union; and imported players, from up the M1 and M6 or abroad, who find it difficult to adjust and commit long term.
In the 1980s, after a gap of half a century when league was played exclusively in the north, Fulham Football Club introduced a rugby league sister team. Former Widnes skipper Reg Bowden became player-coach and Fulham enjoyed an impressive first season. But a decade of struggle on and off the pitch followed. The next reincarnation was as the London Crusaders in 1991, before Australian APL club Brisbane Broncos bought
them out three years later.
The London Broncos were invited by the RFL to be part of the inaugural Super League in 1996, and with a number of Antipodeans and a large kitty, the club were a success, finishing Super League runners-up in 1997 and Challenge Cup finalists in 1999. However, when Lenegan bought the Broncos in 2005 and rebranded the club Harlequins, the sister club of the famous union team, he wanted to focus on producing local talent.
Erstwhile coach Tony Rea, who starred for the Broncos in that first Super League season, had a big hand in altering the blueprint of importing expensive players, and those foundations have been built upon by McDermott, who replaced the Australian in July 2006.
This season, the first team squad of 25 can now boast six young Londoners, and there are many more working their way up through the academy. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Michael Worrincy, both 22, and 21-year-old Tony Clubb are the cream of the current crop. Prop or second row McCarthy-Scarsbrook, in particular, has fast become a cult hero at The Stoop. Aside from the vast amount of replica shirts he sells,
McCarthy-Scarsbrook has been mooted as a future England international, though his impressive start to Super League XIII has been curtailed by a broken wrist.
Born on the Isle of Dogs, the ebullient McCarthy-Scarsbrook enjoyed flinging himself between football posts for the South of England XI until he was 16 when a schoolmaster introduced him and classmate Worrincy to league, and they caught the bug. "Back then I was a fat kid wearing a scrum hat, and had my hands on backwards," grins the player who McDermott now calls 'the Enforcer'. "Four years ago I wouldn't have dreamt I would be been playing Super League rugby with Quins. As a Londoner it is awesome to be playing for the club."
He is positive that the game is being offered to an increasing number of locals, and the quality in the Academy is proof that things are improving. "You can feel the buzz around Harlequins, with London kids wanting to play," he continues. "That buzz wasn't around a few years ago, when we were looking for the Australians to come over. But now if you look at the Academy you can see that there is an abundance of talent
coming through. We should have a full London team within the next couple of years!"
The man at the coalface in charge of unearthing local talent is 37-year-old Phil Jones, who McDermott chiefly credits for the success of the Academy. "Phil, our player performance manager, has put in an immense amount of work over the last six or seven years," says McDermott. "If we can keep these youngsters at the club and interested, I believe we can have a genuine conveyor belt at this club."
Jones, who joined the Broncos a decade ago, has now developed a scouting network monitoring youths in London and the Home Counties for Harlequins and has vastly improved the Academy and scholarship programmes. Though there has been success in the form of Londoners in the first team, Jones believes that disseminating the game to the very young is paramount to producing future McCarthy-Scarsbrooks.
"It isn't a vast pool," he suggests. "We have only dipped our foot in the water these last two years. Our seven scouts watch a whole range of age groups - from 13 to 20-year olds. But at this fledgling stage the young ones are very important. We need to encourage those kids to keep playing rugby league.
"Success breeds success and the system is shown to be working as we are getting numbers in the first team. That we have locals in the team is a big recruitment tool for us. It is starting to change the mindset of the lads in the Academy as they can see what, with a lot of hard work, they could achieve.
"It's hugely satisfying and exciting when one of our guys breaks into the first team. I'm as nervous as they are - I want them to do really well. And it's good for the crowd - they are a lot more forgiving and encouraging, as they want to see local lads do well."
In March, two of Quins' youngsters - centre Darren Reed and prop Olsi Krasniqi - represented England U16s in two Tests against France. Joe Mbu, now 24, was the last player from the club to play at U16 level for England. "It's not the be all and end all, but it is a good indication that things are improving," offers Jones.
"Certainly more people are being exposed to rugby league in London now - there are more people playing in clubs down here than ever before. We are starting to bear the fruits, but in four or five years you can imagine it will be completely transformed, just by the amount of activity that is going on.
"If you look at the gene pool in London - the diverse ethnicity, the size of Londoners - if it is handled correctly, a long way down the line, we might be producing lots of players for the rest of the country as well as ourselves."
Jones believes that hard-working McDermott is key to the success of the talent production line. He regularly watches over scholarship programmes and the academy training sessions, as well as providing workshops and seminars to support London coaches. "Tony (Rea) started the process, but Brian has chased it on to another level," Jones says.
"He is very positive, and always wants to know about how the lads are playing, which is exciting. For example, in the close season we had a scholarship camp for 13 to 16-year- olds and Brian came down to all but two of the 15 training sessions, which pushed the coaches and therefore the kids. I don't know if that is on offer anywhere else.
"I think that interaction and support for the coaches has brought the other London clubs closer to us. They want to get their players into the Harlequins Academy. Everyone is working towards one vision and we want to make Harlequins into a really successful club."
And 38-year-old McDermott, whose contract is due to expire at the conclusion of the current season, is fully committed to the cause. His team have, with the help of the six southern youngsters, impressed this season, and if it weren't for injuries to pivotal players they would be higher up the Super League.
His tireless stamina and determined attitude is epitomised on the field by captain and loose forward Rob Purdham - another player, along with McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Rikki Sheriffe ("one of the three best wingers in the country"), touted by McDermott to be in with a shout of boarding England's World Cup plane to Australia in October.
"I would take Rob to war, and I would follow him to war," says McDermott. "He is a great leader for the boys. He is very like Jamie Peacock, in that he provides tackle busts, offloads and try passes. He can break games for us."
Down the line, McDermott does not rule out the possibility of becoming England head coach - the position currently held by Tony Smith, who he worked under as assistant at Leeds Rhinos before moving south - though for now he is more than happy with his London gig. "I would be hugely proud to be in charge of the national team, though I don't think it will ever happen," he continues. "It is just a fuzzy thought when I have my cup of tea now and then.
"I have to earn my stripes to stand a chance. First I have to produce a conveyor belt of talent in London, and secondly I want to win a competition with Quins. I have invested my guts down here for the past two years and I will be seeing my end through whatever. While I am here the job will have all I can give.
"At the start of the season we made some internal goals, targets that are higher than you might think, so as to push ourselves. But we have come up against teams in the top four and we've been beaten comfortably. When we have stepped into the ring with the big boys, we haven't shown up or done the business, which has been disappointing. If we are successful on the pitch everything else will be a success too - the crowds, sponsorship and interest in the game down south."
There is no doubting his passion for the task - he signs off every match-day programme column with 'Be proud of rugby league in London ... I am'. With McDermott at the helm, and everyone pulling the same way at Harlequins, his dream of hearing a winning cockney captain on television could happen sooner than you think.
FIVE YOUNG QUINS TO WATCH OUT FOR
Tony Clubb
12.06.1987
Centre / Wing
BM: “Tony might not be the tallest bloke, but he is big and muscular. He has got a decent amount of speed and skill too. Unlike most of the young fellas, who are sometimes timid, I’m almost reining in his aggression. He will be in with a shout for international honours in the future.”
Michael Worrincy
16.02.1986
Prop / Loose forward
BM: “Mike was one of the first to stand up against Bradford at Odsal. He’s a big, strong lad and he made some important try-saving tackles and carries. He has a bit of seniority about him, and good rugby league awareness, which is encouraging.”
Will Sharp
13.05.1986
Centre / Wing
BM: “Will is as mad as a hatter, a cracking guy. Put him on the field with the ball in his hand and he will not stop running. He runs his heart out, earns lots of yards. You need people to step up and do the ugly stuff and he is one of those.”
Lamont Bryan
04.12.1988
Centre / Full back
BM: “Lamont is a great character but has not had a chance yet, though I dare say he will do at some point this year. He has got speed and he’s immensely powerful. He’s got a promising career ahead – with hard work and application he will make it.”
Joe Walsh
13.01.1988
Prop / Loose forward
BM: “Joe has been brave enough to make the trip down from the north and he will be a better player and person for it, getting out of the comfort zone. He has had a couple of games for us but his time will definitely come.”
Labels: Brian McDermott, Harlequins Rugby League, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Super League
