Former Lion Haskell is looking forward to Dungannon visit

FORMER British and Irish Lion, James Haskell is looking forward to spending tomorrow at Stevenson Park where he, along with his ex-England international colleague, Mike Tindall, will coach mini teams and record their popular The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast with TV presenter Alex Payne.

For Dungannon RFC members, it promises to be a day they won’t forget in a hurry as their own former players, Stephen Ferris and Tyrone Howe, as well as Irish international, Gill Bourke, come to town as part of the Vodafone Lions Legacy Tour.

The day will start off with Haskell and Tindall passing on their wealth of experience to the next generation of talent at Stevenson Park, which is something the Wasps Heineken Cup winner is particularly looking forward to.

“I find coaching kids very fun,” he said. “It’s amazing to see their progression and I think you find a lot of kids, myself included when I was a kid, don’t know how to tackle, so we will do stuff on that with them.

“Make them think a bit more and have fun and make them enjoy it so it’s not overly serious but everyone is having fun, joining in and building their confidence. I love that aspect of it and it’s in its purest form.”

Having already visited English club Westbury RFC on the Vodafone Lions Legacy Tour, which will also visit a club in both Scotland and Wales, Haskell is also looking forward to his visit to Dungannon and recording their The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast in the clubhouse on Saturday afternoon.

During that part of the day, Haskell, Tindall and Payne will talk about Dungannon RFC, to rugby chair, Cheryl Wilson, and they will also endeavour to shine a light on the unsung heroes at Stevenson Park.

“I can’t wait to go over there,” Haskell added. “There’s always a great reception, the Irish are always in full voice and I think for me the fact that Vodafone go with us and the amount of technology they are going to give you, to be able to help the club, and for us to finish it with some entertainment, have fun, interact, celebrate some of the heroes, like the female chair, Cheryl. I think there are lots of good things and there will be some heroes at that club, that people are taking for granted.

“We talked about it at Westbury. A lot of people think things happen by mistake, they don’t realise that some people are doing things, organising things and I think it will refresh peoples minds in the club, to realise they have such a great club to think ‘could I do a little bit more’.

“That could be just picking up a bit of litter, getting a few more people to come down, it might be doing a bit of stuff on social media and they’ll realise what a community it is because I think a lot of people have lost that during Covid. We genuinely wouldn’t have the characters in the game we’ve got or the people we’ve got if we didn’t have that.”

As part of their visit to Dungannon, Vodafone, who will have an ‘Activation Tent’ on site, will donate technology to the club, while Haskell, Tindall and co hope that and the day as a whole will help with the club’s long-term future.

“The beauty of what Vodafone have done with the Lions Legacy Tour and why they have partnered with us is, Mike and myself started at grassroots rugby clubs so we know how important they are to the community,” the former England international, who earned 77 caps, added.

“Not in terms of the rugby stuff and producing Lions but they have so much more in terms of teaching kids, touring, community, diversity. A lot of kids don’t get to play rugby at school but they get to be free at the weekend. It’s that lovely idea of starting off in the minis and falling in love with the game and for me, the Vodafone Lions Legacy is about making these clubs sustainable.

“We’re donating technology, we’re doing a talk on social media, on business sustainability, we’re doing the live show, we’re putting on a performance.

“We’re coaching the under-10s and you know what, you take it forgranted but at Westbury hundreds of people turned up and we tried to give them an experience they normally wouldn’t have got and for me, that’s essential.

“If we can do something to put some money back in that club, make them sustainable, give them a day when these young kids are going to come down and have a bit of fun, then great.”

The action at Stevenson Park gets underway at 9.30am on Saturday. There will be Jump, Jiggle & Jive, face painting, a magician, bouncy castle and food available all day. At 11.30am Dungannon Women will tackle their Lisburn counterparts, with Mike Tindall refereeing and the former England International will then take the men’s first XV for their warm-up ahead of their All-Ireland League 2B clash with Ballina, which kicks-off at 2.30pm.