Tom Harrison has been explaining how he finds himself England’s new scrum coach for the best part of half an hour. How he has struggled with dyslexia all his life, how reading matchday programmes during a childhood watching Steve Borthwick – now his boss – turning out for Bath fuelled his love for the sport and how, in his early 30s, he has earned a place on England’s staff. Then he is asked about a formative spell in France and his eyes light up.
Like most enthusiastic scrum coaches, Harrison feels the need to get out of his seat to give a demonstration. He is recalling how, during a playing stint with Auch – a farming town an hour south of Toulouse and a club that lists Antoine Dupont, Anthony Jelonch and Gregory Alldritt among its recent alumni – he was given true insight into a French passion.
“This village was built off hard work by individuals who love scrummaging,” says Harrison. “The second row Tao Tapasu was still playing when he was 40, a Samoan who was massive. It didn’t matter if he can’t get round, he loves pushing so he’s playing. The phrase they had was ‘no scrum, no win’. It was all they ever spoke about … Drums going at the start of a scrum …
“A lot of times I think they didn’t care if we won or lost, as long as we won the scrum. It honed and fostered a love of scrummaging for me.
“We must have hit this scrum machine over times. You’ve got this dyslexic Englishman who can’t speak French, the drill is going on over here, I’m at the front of the queue … The coach is speaking French to me and the No 8 is translating from the back.”
On one hand, Harrison’s appointment is straightforward. Borthwick had filled the rest of his coaching staff with his former Leicester charges so it stands to reason Harrison would be next in line. On the other, it is anything but. For a start he has only just turned 32 and unlike most international coaches, Harrison’s playing CV is not what you would call illustrious. A spell in the Championship with Plymouth, with Auch in Pro D2, a bit as a player-coach in the National Leagues but no Premiership appearances, no age-grade representation to speak of.
He started his coaching career with minis and juniors in France and ended up at Leicester, first of all coaching the academy where he enjoyed remarkable success with three straight under-18s titles, coinciding with the emergence of Freddie Steward, Jack van Poortvliet and George Martin. Having proved his pedigree he joined the seniors for their 2021-22 Premiership-winning season.
It is the road less travelled but, as Harrison says, no shortcuts have been taken. “I’ve been coaching since 2012. It’s a quick route in some aspects because I’m young but if you look at experience, I’ve been coaching for a long time.
“I do have moments where I’m like, ‘wow, I’ve got one of the coolest jobs in the world. I get to coach my country in a sport I love’. But then it’s back down to earth and do the job.
“I’m hugely dyslexic. I found school hard. I’ve got a twin brother, he’s the smart one. I had an English teacher called Mr Morris. My parents were a little concerned that all I’d ever read was programmes but he said it was brilliant I’d found something I’m invested in. And that has fuelled my love of rugby.
“I just want to help people maximise their potential. When I look back at it I probably didn’t take enough accountability as a player to achieve what I could have achieved.”
Scott Robertson, who will take over as the New Zealand head coach next year, is another to have spoken candidly about his dyslexia and how it has affected on his approach. In his own words he is a “bullet points and pictures man” and Harrison has also had to adapt. “With players you’ve got to coach them equally but different. It’s how you treat people, equally but different,” says Harrison.
“Everyone has a different way of retaining information. I see it as a positive. It’s almost like you’re in a 100m race but your lane has got hurdles in it. But as I’ve grown up I’ve developed different ways of thinking, someone called in cognitive diversity. I probably think slightly outside the box so as a problem-solving tool it can be very beneficial. I’m not the biggest fan of writing on a whiteboard and people can’t really read my notes.”
On Borthwick’s first day in the job he was at pains to point out how restoring the English scrum was among his priorities. Harrison is clear about how he intends to achieve that – starting with England’s first World Cup warm-up match against Wales on Saturday – and has three key planks to his philosophy, detailing the set-piece’s significance as a) a press builder b) a momentum swinger and c) a fatigue generator.
“You’ve got to have cohesion of players working together. You’ve got to have a mindset to be ruthless but also smart. There have been times when you see scrums that are reckless, ‘we are going to destroy you’, and they smash the first scrum then the next one they give away a silly penalty. You have to be smart with it. You put those things together and you start to get a ruthless scrum.”
