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'When Cockers was here he'd send Greg Bateman or Fraser Balmain running around the posts every day just for being fat'
It’s safe to say that Sam Harrison is taking the new you for the new year challenge rather seriously in 2020. He could easily have stuck with the status quo and kept collecting the Leicester cheque that has been his way of life since making his Tigers first-team debut way back in 2000/09 thanks to injuries to Harry Ellis and Julien Dupuy.
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However, he has committed to an ambitious leap of fate that should make rugby players everywhere sit up and take notice. With his body still in decent nick, there was potentially years left yet in his playing career. Instead, he is packing it all in at the age of 29 and embarking on an alternative adventure on the other side of the world.
“It either says I am stupid or that I am willing to try something new and take a risk,” he pondered when asked by RugbyPass to sum up what people should make of his decision to jack it all in at Leicester and relocate lock, stock and barrel to the Australian Gold Coast to do something completely different.
“I have always had interests outside of rugby that I always wanted to pursue more and more because I have been doing small bits of carpentry at home and started up my own little business a few years ago [Harrison Made] just making homeware and stuff out of timber.
“More and more I have found myself wanting to do that and I am on the right side of 30, so why not do it now? For me, it was just more the right time. Obviously, I have got kids as well who are only just in school so say if I was to wait another few years, it gets harder and harder to do a move like this so just timing-wise it all seems like the right time really.”
(Continue reading below…)
Sam Harrison was one of the senior Leicester players to contribute to The Academy, the six-part RugbyPass documentary series on how the club develops its youth
He won’t miss the media side of being a rugby player. “I’ll be glad it is over. As lovely as all the journalists are you get tired of it, I suppose. You [RugbyPass] are officially my last interview so I’m going to give this one my all,” he breezily declared in midweek at the end of a busy media session where he was in huge demand at Oval Park.
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“I haven’t been given any interesting ones [questions] really if I am honest. They have all been, ‘Why are you leaving?’ I have been explaining myself all day.”
Let’s take a different tack then. What message does quitting so young send out to his sport, especially to youngsters in the highly regarded Tigers academy who are dreaming of having the career Harrison is nonchalantly turning his back on this Saturday when he makes his last Gallagher Premiership appearance off the bench?
Room 101 ??. So lucky to be able to play one last time at welford road tomorow! ?? https://t.co/anTOJHfDAy
— Sam Harrison (@ShazamHarrison) January 3, 2020
“We have got a new changing room now which has been good, all the young players are in there as well so a lot of them have asked me and maybe my decision might open up the eyes of some of the young lads – or even older lads – that you don’t have to play rugby until your body gives up.
“That is something that is sort of cliched. The cliched thing is you keep playing until your body packs it in and I never really wanted to do that. Hopefully, other people will now do that as well. Even if you don’t have passions outside of rugby and rugby is your one and only love, you do have to have something else in the fire and luckily I have managed to sort of leave the game on my terms.
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“Obviously there has been a lot of players who haven’t been able to do it that way. I’m sure there have been players who have retired who have struggled because they haven’t had stuff they have pursued. More and more, academy players are being made aware of that and I definitely know that here, Leicester along with the RPA [Rugby Players’ Association] make them pursue other activities outside of rugby other than playing on PlayStation.
The process. pic.twitter.com/NAlT46p1Vn
— Harrison Made (@harrison_made) January 25, 2017
“For me, it was just getting to that point where I would make my interests my job and make rugby my pastime. I thought Australia is a nice country, I can speak the language and it is nice weather… I have a few mates over there and I have got a mate in the area I want to live. I went over there in the summer, met a few people and sort of blagged a job. My wife has never been but she has taken my word for it that it is nice.
“We’re going to the Gold Coast, just south of it, and I’m doing carpentry. A lot of it I haven’t actually sorted yet. I’m meeting the bloke over there who I met in the summer. We have been in constant communication on email and stuff. It is very much going to be making my own way I suppose and seeing how it goes really. It is a bit of a risk but hopefully it pays off.”
With flowing locks and multiple tattoos, Harrison has cultivated a hard man look during his years as a Leicester scrum-half. Beneath that tough guy exterior, though, there are sure to be teary emotions when the final whistle blows at Welford Road and the local boy who did good takes the farewell salute of the home crowd.
“It will definitely be emotional,” he admitted. “I’ve got about 30 mates coming. I have got all my family coming and stuff, but I am more focused on the game, it’s just a big game for the club really. It couldn’t be a better week to go out on with such a big game.”
Tigers certainly need the points given their precarious position near the foot of the Premiership and while Harrison will no longer be part of the furniture when that battle for safety is resumed post-Bristol at Bath on January 25, he will be heartily roaring them on from afar.
“Obviously I am going to slowly turn into being a fan. I am probably going to give all the lads a load of abuse online and stuff like that. That is going to be an adjustment. Then I will have to watch the games at four AM or something silly. I will cross that bridge when I come to it.”
He isn’t sure which dressing room pals he will be cheering on the most. “I don’t know. I don’t want to say until I am a fan because I want to make my own mind up once I am a fan. I don’t want to jinx myself.” What he will admit, though, is how memories of the banter he experienced over the years will always generate a smile if he is ever feeling homesick while adjusting to life down under.
“When Cockers [Richard Cockerill] was here he’d send either Greg Bateman or Fraser Balmain running around the posts just for being fat pretty much every day,” he quipped when asked for any particular standout memory.
“That will always be something that will make me laugh because it is hilarious. Yeah, a lot of Cockers was… for me as a half-back, he was quite kind to me but when he wasn’t so kind of other players. it was quite amusing to me. But there are hundreds of examples of good memories here that I will remember when the time comes.”
WATCH: RugbyPass travelled to Brecon to see how life after rugby is treating Andy Powell
Comments on RugbyPass
Jake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
11 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
11 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
11 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
86 Go to comments