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'He's perhaps in an easier position to talk about it now that he's out of rugby'

By Online Editors
Ex-Wasps lock Kearnan Myall has spoken out about mental health (Photo by Tony Marshall/Getty Images)

There is a rollercoaster of emotions that surrounds being a professional athlete.

You get the highs of winning matches and lifting trophies with your mates, but on the flip side there are lows – losses, expired contracts, injuries.

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The latter can lead to a whole host of questions. When is our next win coming? What if I’m not offered a deal anywhere? What if I never play again?

These thoughts can spiral in extreme cases into depression, anxiety, loneliness, abandonment. All feelings that are often overlooked in sport.

Elite sportsmen and women are idealised within the media, supported by many and potentially carry the perception they are immune to such problems. This isn’t the case – mental illness affects everyone.

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That’s where charities such as LooseHeadz come in.

“They’re using rugby as a tool to infiltrate awareness of mental health,” Saracens winger Alex Lewington explained.

“They’re using social media and people like myself… they have a group of ambassadors who support it by putting things out on our social channels too and doing stuff like I did early in pre-season with the ‘access to a Sarries pre-season day’.

“There are other ideas coming though, I’ve only just joined; that’s the first thing I did and there’s more stuff to come.”

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Lewington noticed the rugby-centred charity on Instagram, and contacted them after learning of their aim to make a difference to lives touch by mental health.

The 28-year-old offered his support and became a LooseHeadz ambassador to help tackle the stigma.

Alex Lewington depression
Alex Lewington celebrates

“I’ve wanted to get involved in a charity for a while and this is something that is close to my heart.

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“It’s stuff that has affected my family, not any of my immediate family, and my friends. It’s probably something in my life that I want to help because it’s affecting people close to me.”

With rugby being a physical, aggressive sport, opening up can be quite hard for players, especially to teammates.

It is easy to put on a front ‘man up’, ‘suck it up’ or ‘just get on with it’ as per the buzzwords.

Lewington admits there may be times where that should be the case, however notes the game’s awareness of mental health and attitude towards it has changed in the decade he has been playing professionally even if it still has a long way to go.

“It’s definitely improving. If I think back to 10 years ago when I first came professional, to be seen to have any sort of weakness was seen to be not good enough whereas now it’s a bit more open.

“I think there are certain situations where getting on with it and toughing it out is necessary but there are definitely some situations where that’s not the case and those phrases would get used.

“It’s probably just being better at identifying when those occasions are rather than us saying we all need to be worried about things all the time. That’s my main thing with it; you want more support to be there, more research to go into it so we have more knowledge on it because it’s such a new thing.

“Outside of rugby men in general there’s pressure on us to be strong and emotionless. In some situations, in a work place or wherever, there might be moments where you need to be like that but I think there is a lot of time in the rest of your life where you need to express how you’re feeling otherwise… the mind is a funny thing isn’t it? It can play tricks on you.”

Lewington has endured several injuries lay-offs since making his senior debut for Leicester Tigers in 2009.

When a setback occurs in the former London Irish flyer’s life, he knows he has the support network around him at Saracens and at home but it’s not always that easy for everyone.

“I’m quite lucky. I have my girlfriend and my parents have always been good support for me but even with that you tend to try and do a sort of ‘man up’ thing across a period of time when you’re probably feeling a bit vulnerable and down.

“You just keep yourself to yourself. Injury is probably the toughest place to be, especially with long term injuries; you can find yourself spiralling a bit especially if the injury itself isn’t improving at the rate you want it to. It can be quite demoralising.

“Rugby is also getting better at supporting people outside of rugby whether that’s education or businesses, but if what you’re solely relying on is rugby and then you can be worried about it; obviously it’s a short career as it is and there could be no contract offers at the end of the year for you or you could have an injury which could finish your career. In terms of a work place scenario that’s quite a stressful position to be in.”

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Saracens’ Maro Itoje shouts during the June 1 Gallagher Premiership Rugby final (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

“Luckily more awareness is being made of that and just the general inclusion within the squad helps a lot, being around the boys, feeling like you’re involved and not being so isolated.”

He continued: “Sometimes you get a culmination of all those things and that’s probably when someone feels the most vulnerable.

“The message is put out there that we have people like Jonesy (Dave Jones, Saracens Head of Psychology and Personal Development) and the coaches who are there for you and available for a chat. Maybe it’s not even a chat it’s just the club caring more about you in general.

“I think Saracens is probably one of the better clubs to be at for that kind of thing, although I think all the clubs have a long way to go. Particularly in terms of support for the guys who are not necessarily starters and are just signing short-term contracts and are having to move a lot which takes its toll on someone more than you’d expect.”

Ex-Leeds, Sale Sharks, Wasps and England Saxons lock Kearnan Myall has sounded the alarm over the mental wellbeing of top player after intolerable pressure and scrutiny took him to the brink of suicide.

He opened up by going public about his struggles and Lewington insists more players getting things off their chest is an important next step in tackling mental health.

“I thought he was brave to open up,” Lewington said of Myall.

“He’s perhaps in an easier position to talk about it now that he’s out of rugby. I suppose the next step is to start talking about whether people are in those situations in rugby currently.

“A lot of rugby players may not have gone to the extremes he obviously went through in his low periods but they’ve possibly had a smaller version of those things. Not necessarily saying suicide but questioning their self-worth and the expectation week in, week out in a results driven business can be quite difficult.

“The RPA having the helpline it does now is massive and with it being confidential that helps a lot. There might be times you don’t want someone close to you knowing what you’re thinking, you just want to talk to someone completely impartial and you know that conversation isn’t going anywhere.”

And for LooseHeadz, what is next for the stigma-tackling foundation?

“They want to use rugby to expand to the general public. At the moment they might be well known within rugby but if I talked to someone who didn’t follow rugby they would never have heard of them. I think they just want to expand to an audience outside of sport, their reach level just needs to grow in order to help as many people as they can.”

For more information on LooseHeadz, visit www.looseheadz.co.uk or follow them on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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J
Jon 16 minutes ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

31 Go to comments
j
john 2 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 4 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 7 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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