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Live Preston & Fylde Issue 108 (September 2022)
BUCKING THE TREND
As Gareth Dyer departs from his role as Director of Rugby at Grasshoppers, he has much to be proud of – a brace of promotions, a league trophy, two Lancashire Cups and a host of records. He speaks to David Fearnhead about the philosophy behind running the renowned Preston club
At the start of August England head coach Eddie Jones fired a broadside at the old guard who run rugby in this country. He lambasted their reliance on southernbased public schools like Harrow, who in his opinion, produced players who led a privileged life and lacked ‘resolve’. Of all his players, only Wigan-born Owen Farrell seemed to have anything of the ‘warrior’ mentality about him.
Whilst Jones’ observations upset the RFU, he may well have found one North West club more to his liking.
Preston Grasshoppers is bucking the trend of falling numbers in amateur rugby. The famed club dates back to 1869, but it isn’t hung up on its 153 years of history. It continues to be the largest community rugby club in the North.
As Gareth Dyer, the long-serving Director of Rugby, steps away to devote more time to his young family, he is leaving behind a club in healthy shape.
The son of former Hopper’s player Ian Dyer, his connection to the club goes back to playing as a 10-year-old. Now 44, he’s spent most of his life in the game and became one of the youngest directors of rugby when injury curtailed his own playing career at Blackburn in his 20s.
“We’ve got around 500 in the youth system which are boys and girls. We’ve got a fast-growing ladies’ section, with two ladies’ teams last season. In terms of the adult mens we are still managing to have five or six teams out on a Saturday, which is very much against what’s happening elsewhere in the country.
“A lot of clubs are finding they are running fewer and fewer teams than they have in the past. You put all that together and there’s somewhere in the region of 700 players ranging from five and six years old up to people in their fifties and sixties.”
Anyone watching the recent Commonwealth Games would have been aware of the Rugby Sevens. Here too, Grasshoppers have enjoyed success as past winners of the Lancashire Sevens.
Another Hopper’s success story is Connie Clarke, who was recently selected to represent England U18s – making her debut at the Rugby Europe U18 Sevens Championship in Prague.
“Connie has done fabulously well,” says Gareth. “One of our key roles is to introduce young people to rugby and give them the environment to learn the game in the right way. Ladies’ rugby is the fastest growing demographic within the sport. For someone like Connie, who started with us at high school age, to go on to achieve what she has is fabulous for us as it signposts to other young ladies that it’s something they could achieve and it’s right on their doorstep.
“Ladies’ rugby is something we’ve committed ourselves to and we are starting to get some real recognition for it. All of the success we are seeing is probably down to the hard work of Steve Tiernan, who has put his heart and soul into making sure girls’ rugby at Preston is taken seriously.
“We do a lot of stuff like team building away from the field which is about giving girls confidence. We talk a lot about empowering young ladies to be confident and make decisions because there is a lot of negative stuff out there that can lead girls to feel anxious or insecure.
“So, part and parcel of this is about being part of a team, being friends and understanding what you can achieve if you work together. If individual or team success comes off the back of that then great, but ultimately what we are trying to say is there is a new way of exploring your strengths and skills. You might be good at something you never thought of – so come and give it a try.”
Gareth’s passion for rugby as a social aspect in one’s broader life is something he worries is being squeezed out of the game at youth level as more and more the focus of those in charge of the game, appears to be discovering new talent for pathways into the professional game.
“It’s akin to what happened with football. They seem to want to try professionalising them at a younger and younger age and it takes away that enjoyment factor.
“The problem is that very few will get taken on professionally and those who get cut from the game at 17 or 18 have got nothing really then that ties them into it. They drift out of the game and we can’t really afford that in rugby.
“Something that was working perfectly well in the past that allowed clubs to nurture their own talent has been taken away.” •
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