Rugby helped England scrum coach overcome dyslexia
SPOTLIGHT: As a dyslexic, England scrum coach Tom Harrison used to read match programmes and now it is a benefit to his coaching skills.
Harrison joined Steve Borthwick’s England coaching staff ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup with the task of overseeing the scrum. The 32-year-old made the move following his tenure with Leicester Tigers, during which he contributed to their success in a Premiership title-winning season as assistant coach.
Rugby’s role in Harrison’s life is not limited to performance on the pitch. His passion for the sport at a young age helped him deal with his dyslexia – which he says acts not as a detriment, but as a benefit to his coaching.
“I’m hugely dyslexic. If you don’t like doing something, or you’re not very good at it, the majority of the time you don’t do it, and when I was younger, I wasn’t very good at reading.
“All I would read was matchday programmes. My parents were a little concerned, but my English teacher, Mr Morris, thought it was brilliant that I’d found something that I was invested in reading, and that fuelled my love for rugby.
“When you find a love for something you think to yourself ‘yes, I can do this’, and that’s what you do. I found a love for rugby and that helped me develop other skills. I’m not saying that had I not bought a matchday programme, or had I not bought a rugby magazine, I would never have been able to read or write, but having interest in a sport allowed me to hone other skills that would go on to help me.
“A love of scrummaging might seem to be a given for a specialist set-piece coach and at the top of the job description. For Harrison, that love was nurtured in a small village in France over a decade ago, during his time as a player for Rugby Club Auch, then competing in the second division of the French professional game.
“I went to Auch, which is about an hour out of Toulouse. They had a phrase: ‘No scrum, no win’, and it’s all they ever spoke about. Sometimes I thought they didn’t even care if they won the game, as long as they won the scrum! That team was built from individuals who loved scrummaging, and for me it honed and fostered a love of scrummaging.”
With the seed planted, Harrison’s journey into coaching began. Back in England, during his time as a player for Plymouth Albion, and later as a player-coach with Darlington Mowden Park, he continued to polish his skills and knowledge of the game’s set piece.
In August 2017, a move to Leicester Tigers’ academy coaching team paved the way for a first encounter with Borthwick, who would go on to promote Harrison into the professional setup as a first team assistant coach. This relationship, he says, further influenced his mindset.
“I’ve known Steve now for four or five years professionally. His personal desire to get better as a coach has rubbed off on me. It’s that ability to do my best, not because I want to be the best, but because I want to get better at helping other players achieve the things that I might never have achieved as a player that’s important. Seeing Steve do that drives me and motivates me.
“I see it as a positive – It’s almost like running a 100-metre race when your lane has hurdles in it but, as I’ve grown up, I’ve developed different ways of thinking. I might come up with brilliant ideas, I might come up with horrendous ideas, but I probably think outside the box compared to other people, so I see that as beneficial. I’m not the biggest fan of writing on a whiteboard though!”
The size of the task ahead of this England side as they prepare to take on the world is not lost on Harrison. World Cups only come around once every four years, and opportunities are there to be taken. One thing is certain, and that’s a collective desire within the squad to succeed.
“I love waking up and working with these players and working with the staff,” he said. “From the chef to the security – how the backroom staff here help you and want England to win is amazing. And the players, in their desire to get better, have been brilliant for me.
“When a group comes together, a huge thing around cohesion is having a shared vision and a shared aim, and making sure that every day we work towards that.”
Coaching a group of players at the top of their game sees Harrison intent on drawing on the vast knowledge available to him.
“The experience within our front row is phenomenal. If I was to come in and say ‘Alright lads, this is what we’re doing’ without asking for opinions, that would be silly of me. There are experiences that Dan Cole has had that no other play in our group will have had. Instead of him thinking that it’s a threat to his selection, it’s actually an asset to us.
“The work that Dan, Joe Marler and Jamie George have done in helping to coach and own our scrum has been brilliant.”
The journey is just beginning for Tom and this England squad, who kick off their Summer Nations Series with fixtures against Wales, Ireland and Fiji before their campaign in France gets underway in September.
Source @EnglandRugby
