Alumni in the Spotlight - George Chuter (Class of 1994)

George Chuter (Class of 1994) left Trinity to go to university with the intention of becoming a teacher. Halfway through his time at university the game went professional and he was immediately snapped up by Saracens. After Saracens, he went on to, play for the Leicester Tigers and was part of the club’s successful era during the 2000s, winning multiple Premiership and Heineken Cup titles. The pinnacle of his career came when he played for the England national team, earning 24 caps between 2003 and 2011. Since retiring, George has remained involved in the sport and works as a coach and as a public speaker at Under the Posts Ltd.

How did Trinity prepare you for playing rugby at a professional level?

While the game was still amateur when I was playing at the school, I learnt quite early on what it would take to become a good rugby player. A few teachers were still playing a good level of rugby locally, and I tried to gather as much from them as possible. We also had access to a decent gym and underwent a pretty good introduction to weight training that would become a very important part of professional rugby. And finally, the great New Zealand All Black captain Wayne Shelford came to the school one year, to run a coaching session with the First XV. Although I wasn’t old enough to be playing for the team yet, I heard stories of the training he ran, and some of the advice he gave the players and coaches, and I took a lot of that on board and put it to good use when I was starting to take rugby seriously.

Your greatest try?

I didn’t score lots of tries, unfortunately! However, the ones I did score tended to be more than just a rolling maul try where everyone else did the work. I scored one of the quickest hat-tricks in Premiership history when I scored three tries in the first 34 minutes of a game against Rotherham, which was memorable. But my favourite try was the only one I scored for England. It was in my first start, against Australia in Melbourne. I took a pass from the scrum half at a ruck, threw a huge dummy, and ran in from about 40 metres out. I wasn’t going very fast, but it felt like I was at the time!!

The tackling height is being reduced this summer in the community game. Many players say this will change the game as we know it. What are your thoughts? How will it impact those players that then go on to play professionally?

I think it needs to be said that this is just a trial of changing the tackle height. If things don’t work, the RFU can still change things back to the way they were. I do think that encouraging the tackler to go low is not a guarantee of avoiding injury to the tackler. It may reduce tacklers making contact with the head of a ball-carrier, but it may also increase the instances where a tackler may get their head in the wrong place and catch a knee to the head. I think it is a strange move to concentrate on the tackle to make the game safer, when far more injuries probably occur in rucks where players are less in control of their actions due to the frantic and fast nature off breakdowns. Also, the new regulation does not apply to the professional game, so we won’t see how it works on televised games.

Trinity is on a winning streak now. How seriously do people watch our success in terms of identifying future professional talent?

Schools’ rugby has always been an important tool in developing future professional players. I think you can identify talents and abilities, as well as character traits, that will be beneficial in a professional environment. However, it’s also worth noting that young players, particularly young male players, can change and develop in drastically different ways between school and senior rugby. A player who is perhaps bigger, stronger, or faster as a youngster, will not necessarily continue to be superior as their age-group gets older. This is why I believe it is essential for school-age players to be very strong in basic skills and techniques. Tackle technique is a great example of this. A player who learns to tackle properly from an early age will likely avoid injury and be a far more effective tackler when they get older, compared to a player who is just big and strong for their age and gets away with just grabbing other players. This is where schools can really help players become good professionals.

One piece of advice you’d give to our current 1st XV?

The best advice I can give is to enjoy the sport. If you are not enjoying it, it will be very difficult to get better at it. Rugby can give you so much, so don’t take it so seriously that you miss out on the fun. When you are training and playing, there is a time to be serious and concentrate. But there is also time for enjoying what you do.

If you could win only one match all season, who would you want to beat?

At Leicester, our biggest game of the season was the local derby against Northampton. The clubs are only about 35 miles from each other, and in the border areas between the two counties, even families have split loyalties! Although I grew up in London, I played for Leicester for 14 years, and the derby week was always the most important fixture of the year, especially for the fans. And fortunately, I beat Northampton more than I lost to them!!

The greatest player ever born, in any position, anywhere in the world?

In my opinion, the greatest player to play the game is New Zealand All Black Richie McCaw. He had no weaknesses to his game, he was a great captain, probably could have played in most positions on the field and was never injured in over 140 Test matches. Incredible record! Oh, and he won the World Cup twice as captain, back-to-back.