Gentlemen’s game goes behind bars

Nov 5 2008 The Journal

Throw three students into a secure prison with little more than a rugby ball and what do you get? A groundbreaking community coaching programme set to be rolled out nationwide. Former Journal Chief Sports Writer Simon Rushworth reports.

PICTURE the scene: rugby-playing student juxtaposed with drug dealing con. This most unnatural scenario may appear like fantasy but for three months earlier this year two diametrically opposed groups came together under the inclusive umbrella of sport. Twelve weeks later an unlikely and lasting bond had been forged between individuals with little in common other than a desire to compete.

“The whole prisoner thing went out of the window within a couple of weeks,” explained Ulsterman Michael Rae. “We quickly started to focus on the inmates as people who wanted to play rugby rather than people with troubled pasts.

“We never expected to make that kind of connection. We were all a bit nervous going into the thing, but after the first couple of weeks we felt comfortable. Ultimately there was a lot of respect on both sides.”

Rae, 21, graduated in sports science and coaching at Northumbria University this summer and now works in one of the college gyms with a view to pursuing his dream of landing a full-time coaching role. A few weeks ago, as a student volunteer, he was scrumming down with men convicted of assault, drugs offences and worse at a North East prison once infamous for one of the worst disorder records in the UK.

These days Northumberland’s Acklington Prison is a bastion of discipline and proactive prisoner rehabilitation. Inmates such as Sunderland’s Des Donnolly are offered every opportunity to reshape their lives and focus on a crime-free future by taking part in schemes such as 2008’s groundbreaking Sports Universities North East England (Sunee) rugby coaching programme. But does it work?

“The rugby programme definitely ignited an old passion inside me,” said 38-year-old Donnolly, a drugs dealer serving a seven-year sentence. “My love for the game had fizzled out over the years and I’d just become blinded by football and boxing.

“I’ve always liked rugby and the values it teaches. You respect rugby players far more than Premier League football players because they generally behave well on and off the field. Footballers teach kids the wrong kind of approach to sport – but you’ll get a 22-stone forward who could snap a referee in half walking away when a decision’s gone against him.”

Donnolly is no stranger to serving time after finding himself imprisoned in France on a separate drugs charge several years ago. The towering Wearsider looks more than capable of holding his own on the rugby pitch and it is men like this who must have made Rae and his fellow coaches, Scott Riddell and Darren Fearn, reconsider the decision to spend every Friday afternoon in the lions’ den of a prison.

“I knew it would be a real test of my ability as a coach to do this programme,” he said. “I went into it thinking it’s now or never and if I don’t do it, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I also thought that if I could coach a group of prisoners with no real experience of team sports, I could coach anyone. Hopefully that’s the case.”

For prison officer Steve Wright, a member of Acklington’s sports staff and the vital link between the prison and Sunee, there is no doubt that Rae and his fellow students made a difference.

“There were lads on the coaching programme who had little or no confidence before that scheme,” he said. “But through playing rugby every Friday afternoon they found a focus and set themselves targets. Personal pride was at stake and the core of prisoners who turned out week in, week out wanted to prove something to themselves and their mates.

“At the end of it all there was a big match with an awards presentation to follow. The best players were presented with rugby shirts and those lads who won them must have worn them non-stop for weeks. In the prison community that kind of thing has significant cachet. I’m already looking at working with Sunee in the future to benefit more of our prisoners.”

Rugby might not appear to be the answer to reshaping some of society’s most unsavoury characters, but the sport’s focus on teamwork and discipline dug deep into the mindset of Acklington’s inmates. Donnolly intends to move into property development when his current stretch is over, although there are no thoughts of playing rugby regularly. The sessions did provoke some serious thought, nevertheless.

“I’ve always thought of myself as being pretty young, but for the first time in my life I realised I was knocking on 40 and I needed to do something with my life,” he admitted. “Drug dealing was a nice little earner when I lost my job on the oil rigs, but I’m finished with all of that now.”