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Mike Ford has bagged a new role... and George will be helping out
Former England and Ireland assistant Mike Ford has bagged himself a new role – heading up the five-strong investment group that on Friday took control of Oldham RFLC. Ford, who was recently in charge of Belgium for their Rugby Europe Championship campaign where they finished seventh of the eight teams, was the centre of attention at Boundary Park when the ownership change at the rugby league club was announced.
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The ex-Bath director of rugby, whose most recent Gallagher Premiership job at Leicester ended in the summer of 2021 with the arrival of Kevin Sinfield, used to represent Oldham during his rugby league playing career and at the start of his coaching career. He now hopes that his group’s takeover is the start of a successful new journey for the Roughyeds.
Ford told the club website: “We are really excited about the future of the Roughyeds. It’s close to all our hearts and we know the importance of a vibrant, thriving Oldham Rugby to the town and its people.
“We certainly don’t take our responsibility as club custodians lightly and it’s our vision to give the people of Oldham a rugby league club they can be proud of. A club that they are excited and inspired by and one that they can identify with. We cannot wait to get started.”
Later at a media event, Ford added: “This isn’t about me, or us, but about the town, the club and you, the supporters. Collectively, we have a lot of different skills, but we haven’t yet worked out who does what.”
Gang of five revealed as new owners | 5??
Mike Ford has, not surprisingly, grabbed all the headlines, but the new owners of Oldham RLFC numbered five at today’s Boundary Park media scrum, writes ROGER HALSTEAD.https://t.co/uZjK4oX2iS
???#OurYear | #OldhamRL2023 | #NewEra pic.twitter.com/sLgGPdNfdu
— Oldham RLFC (@Roughyeds) March 25, 2023
Oldham, who have not been in Super League since 1997, now play in front of crowds well under 1,000 in League 1, the lowest professional tier in British rugby league. Ford was joined on the club’s board by local businessmen Mick Harrington, Gary Kershaw and Simon Winnard and Haydn Walker, Ford’s assistant coach at Oldham more than 20 years ago.
“Our sole aim is to provide this town with a rugby league team of which everyone can be proud,” he continued. “The move to Boundary Park was a key part of our interest. We have worked closely with Latics and with Oldham Council and we would like to thank both for giving us so much help. Going forward, we will have close links with Athletic, with whom we have a long-term agreement.”
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Ford carved out a coaching career in rugby union before moving back to the area five years ago, buying land in Diggle and building a house where he lives close to George, who now plays for Sale following his 2022/23 move. Ford also revealed that his son, who has 82 England caps, will assist Oldham’s part-time players with some coaching and mentoring sessions.
“We have talked about that, me and George,” continued Ford at the media briefing. “To have guest sessions with people like George and Kyle Eastmond, and George will do a bit of that for sure. They will bring something different and every now and again, the lads here will get some sessions with them. I’ll be helping out too, I’ll mentor the current coach Stuart (Littler) to make the team better.”
Ford mischievously added that George could also one day actually play league for Oldham. “He is an Oldham boy, George, and he would love to have a go at it. He will get to the World Cup, then he might go for another four years or so because he is under contract with Sale but then who knows. He has always fancied a go at rugby league.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
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