The Leicester Tigers attack coach discusses the influence of coach Darryl van der Velde on his career, and gives his thoughts on Sam Burgess on the Golden Point Daily podcast
Friday 17 April 2020 17:17, UK
Mike Ford joined the Golden Point Daily podcast this week to look back on a career that has taken him from being a top-flight rugby league player to a highly-regarded coach in rugby union.
The 54-year-old is currently serving as attack coach with Gallagher Premiership side Leicester Tigers, having held posts both on these shores and beyond, including a spell as head coach of the German national team.
Ford also spoke about his biggest coaching influence, bouncing back from an embarrassing Challenge Cup defeat and his disappointment over Sam Burgess' short stay in rugby union...
Ford's professional playing career began at Wigan in 1983 just as the club started to emerge as the pre-eminent force in rugby league. He won the Challenge Cup with the Warriors in 1985 before moving on to hometown club Oldham two years later.
But it was at Castleford, who he joined in 1991, where the scrum-half met the man who would come to have a huge influence on him, both as a player and when he would eventually turn his hand to coaching.
That was none other than the club's Australian head coach Darryl van der Velde, who remains in contact with Ford to this day is and is even godfather to one of his children.
"He pretty much taught me to understand the game - when to speed it up, when to kick, when to slow it down and the consequences of making decisions and the risks you take when making them," Ford said.
He pretty much taught me to understand the game - when to speed it up, when to kick, when to slow it down, and the consequences of making decisions and the risks you take when making them.
"Not just that, the way he coached rugby was to do with life off the field as well - the way you prepared, the way you dressed in the morning, the way you clean your car."
Ford admitted he was initially confused by some of Van der Velde's methods, but soon came around to his way of thinking and took that philosophy on board for his own career.
"He used to give you a mark out of 10 and I used to think at times I'd played really well where I'd set a try up or scored one myself and he'd grade me a five or a six," Ford said.
"Then other times I didn't think I did anything, nothing special, but we won he'd give me nine out of 10. I couldn't figure it out and he said, 'Your job is to dictate the team around the field, make sure we're going through our phases and patterns - that's how I view you'.
"I was probably viewing it as special moments whether you'd played well or not, but it made me more consistent."
Ford's first coaching opportunity came in 1999 when he joined part-timers Bramley for what would turn out to be their final season playing professional rugby league.
The perennial strugglers had moved to share Headingley with Super League side Leeds Rhinos two years prior and were playing in front of a handful of spectators as well.
But despite a defeat to amateurs Leigh Miners Rangers in the Challenge Cup third round early on, Ford's men achieved a respectable mid-table finish in the Northern Ford Premiership and it is a time he looks back on fondly.
We played at Headingley with 200 fans watching us every week, but I had no pressure on me.
"Bramley was probably the best thing which could have happened to me," said Ford, who returned to Oldham as player-coach at the end of that season. "We played at Headingley with 200 fans watching us every week, but I had no pressure on me.
"We didn't do well in the beginning - we lost to Leigh Miners. We were 12-6 up at half -ime and I told the team, 'don't worry, they're amateurs and we'll be fitter than them' - and we lost 18-12.
"But the second half at Bramley, I pulled through and it was great, and I loved my time there."
Those experiences of having to get the best out of players and a team without day-to-day interaction would stand Ford in good stead for one of his more recent appointments, that as head coach of Germany's national rugby union team in 2018.
Backed by ambitious soft drinks billionaire Hans-Peter Wild, the Germans made it to the repechage round of qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup where they won two of three matches, losing to eventual qualifiers Canada.
"It was different because even though he was a billionaire, they were all amateur players and you couldn't train every day because of work commitments," said Ford, who took on the role after leaving French giants Toulon.
"That was a challenge, going from Toulon back down to Tuesday, Thursday and Friday training sessions, cutting your cloth as a coach and still trying to get the same result."
Ford is one of several former rugby league players who have made the successful transition into coaching rugby union, along with the likes of Joe Lydon, Shaun Edwards and his former PE teacher Phil Larder.
Fewer players who have swapped the 13-man code for the 15-man one have adapted though, including Sam Burgess, who returned to league just over 12 months into a three-year contract after being unfairly scapegoated by some for England's 2015 Rugby World Cup group-stage exit.
Ford was Burgess' coach during his time at Bath and believes he should have been utilised as a blindside flanker, rather than as an inside centre where England picked him, after seeing him excel in the pack for the Somerset club as they finished runners-up to Saracens in the 2015 Premiership final.
He is also in no doubt the now-retired former Bradford Bulls and South Sydney Rabbitohs second row had the skill-set to become a dominant force in union.
"I always wanted him to play in the forwards because that's his game and that's what Sam is," said former England defence coach Ford. "After four or five weeks, we put him in at six as a flanker and the last six games of the year he was fantastic.
I really think he could have been one of the world's best players in rugby union as well.
"We played in the Premiership final that year and he out-played Billy Vunipola - who is recognised as the best No. 8 in the game - and got selected for England's 2015 World Cup squad.
"The thing that disappointed me is the influence Sam could have had on rugby union for those three years if he'd stayed. I really think he could have been one of the world's best players in rugby union as well."
