Harrogate head coach hoping to turn around rugby club’s fortunes

From Japan to New Zealand, Sam Fox’s love affair with rugby union has taken him around the world.

As early as he can remember, he recalls being taken to his local rugby club in Cornwall with his dad where he would kick balls into the river.

These days, he’s tasked with leading Harrogate Rugby Club as head coach.

While most sportsmen tend to swap the pitch for the touchline after retirement, Sam had his eye on coaching well before his last kick of a rugby ball.

He hopes his ambition for improving players and Harrogate as a whole will bear fruit in the coming years.

Taking rugby abroad

Sam grew up in Cornwall and has been playing rugby since he was three-years-old.

The love for rugby was bred from an early age. His dad was an ex-England schoolboys player and his mum a big supporter of the sport.

At 16, he went to college in Truro and started playing for Exeter Chiefs RUFC where he spent his formative years in the academy.

His most memorable experience was spending time in New Zealand after a stint in Japan, where he played in a world championships.

Sam played for Wellington Lions under-19s alongside guys who would go onto elite rugby.

However, it was the developmental side that caught Sam’s eye and led him onto a career path in coaching.

“It was amazing. In the UK, you’re coached and taught in a very similar way the whole way through. To see how differently it’s done in Japan and then New Zealand, you can see why they are one of the best teams in the world in the way they go about their coaching.

“It being their national sport out there, every kid has a ball in their hand from the second they’re born. Whereas here it’s football.

“It was really interesting to see and probably what pushed me down that route of coaching and wanting to explore different coaching methods and how to improve players.”

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The standard of rugby at Wellington was high.

Sam was lucky enough to count Thomas and Peter Umaga-Jensen as teammates. Both are nephews of former All Blacks captain, Tana Umaga. He said:

“They were just a different level altogether.

“They are both playing Super Rugby now in New Zealand. What they can do with a ball, I have never seen anything like it.

“It was great. I was playing 10, they were at 12 and 13, and I’d just give them the ball and they would score.”

Returning home to study

Sam returned to England in 2017 and enrolled at Leeds Beckett University.

It was here that he started to embark on his ambition for improving players and started to study sports coaching alongside playing for Harrogate.

About three years ago, Sam says he accepted that he was not going to make it as a professional player.

“There were people that were just a lot quicker and a lot more skilful than me at that stage.

“Knowing that I wanted to be involved in rugby for the rest of my life, coaching was the next best thing that I could do.”

For Sam, coaching is a craft and something that can be explored beyond just teaching players how to play rugby.

There is academic theory behind it and the application of that theory when it comes to improving players.

But it’s also about relationships with people and those that work with you on a weekly basis.

“A lot of the advice that I’ve got is it is a lot about relationships.

“If you can form good relationships with your players and coaching staff then you are already one step ahead of everyone else.

“Maybe you would see in the 80s and 90s, when the game was starting to turn professional, it was very much a dictatorship where the coach says ‘this is what you’re going to do and you do it’. No questions asked.

“Whereas now there is a lot more back and forth. There is a lot more challenges of what you’re doing and making sure your practices are as good as they possibly can be.”

Sam Fox playing for Harrogate Rugby Club.

Sam Fox playing for Harrogate Rugby Club.

Alongside his colleague Aled Jones, Sam launched the academy at Harrogate.

From there, he was made head coach of the first team for the 2021/22 season.

Harrogate were promoted to the Northern Premier League during the season which was effected by the covid pandemic.

However, the last campaign saw Harrogate relegated after a 24-12 loss to Tynedale.

For Sam, his squad, which had an average age of 22, lacked the experience to see games out. However, he added there was a lot the team could take into next season.

“While I was pleased with a lot of the things that we did, ultimately we conceded too many points and lacked the experience to see out games where we were within the seven points range.”

Preparation for next season has started in earnest.

Promotion will be the aim, but for Sam it will also be about improving the players enough so that they can maintain themselves in the next division.

Improving players is a thread that runs through much of Sam’s philosophy.

From setting up the academy with Aled to drawing up a curriculum for the younger players, much of the emphasis is on creating a squad that starts at Harrogate and, hopefully, finishes there.

This is the fifth article in a series of Sporting Spotlight interviews. If you have any local sporting heroes who you think should be featured, contact calvin@thestrayferret.co.uk.