Kevin Sinfield, 42 and from Oldham, one of rugby league’s greatest players, last week began his new career as England’s defence coach. He himself felt that his tenure only truly began when he pulled on the inevitably embossed tracksuit on Tuesday.
He then sat down in a room at Gloucester University — where half the squad had met for an indoor session in civvies — to face the media. One hour later he rose and left. He had spoken to one of the least impressionable groups known to mankind — “What the **** was that all about,” is a fairly normal reaction after a rugby press conference. Yet when Sinfield left the room, many of us felt the need to gather to compare notes on how optimistic and energised we all felt. It was like some kind of revivalist meeting.
He had spoken quietly, without flower or bombast, and yet his honesty, freshness, obvious professionalism, enthusiasm and inspirational qualities had chimed loudly. For heaven’s sake, he excited me. I almost went to lie down.
He has strictly limited experience of rugby union, although he won many admirers in a hard school when he arrived at Leicester Tigers in June 2021 and conspired along with Steve Borthwick, now England’s head coach, and others in a full-scale revival of a great club.
So why has this man suddenly inspired us? He is noted as a wonderful man and at least two Tigers players have referred to him in my presence as the most inspiring man they have ever met.
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To his Leeds friend and Rhinos team-mate in so many great battles, Rob Burrow, a man whose courage on the field as a small guy has been superseded by the courage with which he has faced motor neurone disease, Sinfield has been a constant presence, restless in the extreme in his attempts at alleviation. He has raised millions of pounds for Burrow and the MND charity by accepting daunting challenges, which he brought to an almost unbelievable climax recently when he completed ultra-marathons on seven consecutive days.
Burrow, in return, has helped change Sinfield’s life. The latter was director of rugby at the Rhinos when the news that Burrow was stricken came through. “My old mate was diagnosed back in December 2019 and in the next 12 months a whole lot happened in the UK — with Covid and where we went as a society and a community. So at the back end of that year I did the first challenge and as soon as I finished that challenge I knew I had to do something different with my life. A lot of that is based around Rob. He is faced with this horrible disease and I realised I needed to take some risk, more challenges — then the opportunity at Leicester presented itself which I jumped at. It has been an unbelievable journey working alongside Steve and the staff at Leicester.”
And still, the inspiration from Burrow. “I have taken a couple of things from Rob about fight. The people I’ve have been able to surround myself with over the last couple of years have been real fighters, and they also care about the people around them. Rob’s inspired me in so many different ways and that would be a large reason why I am here today. Without the horrible news I’m not sure I would have come down this path.”
And then there is Borthwick who has inspired Sinfield too. “Steve is a fighter, you know how hard he works, you know he’s obsessed with winning, and you know how diligent he is. The bit you probably don’t see is how much he cares.”
Clearly, the game’s campaign against high shots and concussion is close to his heart. In Gloucester I put it to him that as a defence coach these days, you can see a game lost in micro-seconds if one of your players, albeit by accident, makes contact with the head of an opponent. The referees have been told to issue red cards unless there is considerable mitigation.
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So how will he coach England to avoid cards? Referees are hot on them, quite rightly. But national teams are not hot at all on the idea of conceding tries. “I agree with how right the referees are. But this is something we’ve worked on for a long time. Our tackle height was something we worked on all the time at Leicester. There is always mitigation in some of these incidents but anyone who has worked with me at Leicester will know that we coach to tackle low.
“The sooner we can educate and develop younger players on tackle height the sooner we make the game safer for everyone. My first role as a coach is to provide as safe an environment as I can, and that includes how we practise.”
If he gets his teams to tackle low, does that not leave the team open to offloads as the opponents keep their hands free? “There is a balance. You run the risk of getting it wrong if you tackle high so I’d much prefer if we tackle low and hit rather than risk someone getting hurt or risk losing someone.” In other words, England are going to hit as hard as they can but within the new framework. The lack of cynicism is refreshing.
He also feels that the bane of all defence coaches — the brilliant individual attacker who renders all planning irrelevant — is still around to haunt him, thanks goodness.
“They are still there. Look across world rugby and then look at the Premiership. There are still the players who can pull teams apart although, thankfully, a lot of them I have seen in camp here for the past two days so at least they will be in our team. But massively, they still exist.”
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Sinfield was also asked about the link between the national team and the wider game. One of my many reservations about the Eddie Jones era was that neither Jones nor many others realised the chasm which had grown between the team and the community game and the fans.
He did mention the importance of Twickenham. “But it means much more than that in our communities, in our pathways, junior clubs, school system, women’s game, more people play the game. It is also more of a society issue. The more we can get people into sport and especially team sport, which gives you something different, we can get enough players to see the game through for years and years and years.”
England need this new coaching team. The sport needs their attitudes. With the ranting Rassie Erasmus poisoning the sport, our Joe Marler bringing the relatives of opponents into his sledges; and with rugby’s treasured code starting to fray a little round the edges, the need for balance and inspiration and humanity has rarely been greater.
Luckily, coach Borthwick has drafted in a man who can contribute in every sphere. Leaving Gloucester on Tuesday, it was as if storm clouds had blown away — heading for Australia — and something to be treasured as much as any glorious score, had taken their place.
