Nigerian influence within English rugby union is strong and getting stronger. But could Jamaican rugby, in time, become just as significant?
There is no shortage of talent. Jamaica UK Rugby, a club under the umbrella of the Jamaican Rugby Football Union, has 500 members and counting. There are youth sides and international pathways for sevens and 15s and volunteers, on both sides of the Atlantic, working to help their rugby grow.
Phil Davis, a London-based youth coach, approached the Jamaican union in 2021 to see if there was a pathway to the 15s game for a promising young prop called Ben Hatfield. There was not, so Davis took it on.
“Ben had been in a difficult domestic situation,” Davis says. “I wanted to create something to enthuse him so he had a target. I thought if he had the opportunity to represent the country of his parents, that might be the thing that keeps him in rugby.”
The 2003 Rugby World Cup winner Jason Robinson, who is of Jamaican heritage, has said players from more deprived areas have traditionally been failed by the sport’s authorities. Here is an example of people at grassroots level, working as volunteers, trying to change that reality.
“I wanted to create a sustainable pathway so we could work with the same lads and develop them,” Davis says. “But at the same time attracting new players and spreading our reach. I did sessions in Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol and London. I wanted to give kids from different parts of the country opportunities.”
Davis has since moved on and is now working to create a pathway for young players of Nigerian heritage. Jamaica Rugby UK’s president, Hughton Campbell, says he played a key role.
“We met Phil and said we wanted to do something in the UK for 15s,” Campbell says. “Where Phil took it to the next level was having one group of people who were going to represent Jamaica.”
The 61-year-old Campbell has been involved for more than a decade, combining a telecommunications job with overseeing a complex playing and coaching programme. A breakthrough came in 2018, when a sevens side consisting of UK and Jamaica–based players finished third at the Youth Olympics qualifiers in Las Vegas.
“We needed to have something in the UK, a crossover: people going from the UK to Jamaica and vice versa,” Campbell says. Covid-19 intervened and longer-lasting restrictions in Jamaica necessitated taking UK-based players to tournaments after the pandemic.
“I’ve been to Jamaica this year and met with the prime minister [Andrew Holness],” Campbell says. “He agreed to find a pitch for us. There isn’t an official rugby pitch in Jamaica.”
Davis, meanwhile, highlights the work in the Caribbean. “Curtis Wilmot and Tahj-Jay Lynch have done the development and coaching there,” he says. “Tahj-Jay is a phenomenal person. He drives around the island working with young people. He is as much a father figure to the boys on the island as he is a coach.”
What are the long-term goals? “We’ve put a focus on the 2031 Rugby World Cup,” Campbell says. “Prior to that, in 2028, we could have a side at the Under-20 World Cup. This year we set up an under-16s group, and their coach, Nash Cohen, has put together a strong cohort … and with our females in sevens, we believe we’ve got a really strong group who could possibly take us to the Olympics.”
For any team the opportunity to train together is important. But often these sides come together in the week of a tournament.
“It’s a massive challenge,” Campbell says. “We sent some of our players to California to a high-performance camp for three months. They came back totally transformed. We saw a massive difference and that’s our challenge. If we had more opportunity to be together, we’d be out there competing quite strongly.”
None of this comes cheap – especially travel and accommodation costs associated with the 15s game. The programme lacks a headline sponsor, but given the growing talent pool, it looks an attractive opportunity.
“It’s just a lot of people digging into their pockets,” Campbell says of current funding. “If I had a magic wand it would be: could World Rugby create a kind of partnership for a high-performance camp in Jamaica? That’s probably more effective than anything else.”
How does Campbell manage a complex programme alongside his day job? “It’s quite difficult,” he says. “I’m self-employed and that allows me time to work at my pace and do what I’ve got to do. I’ve got good people around me in management and governance.”
For Campbell and Davis, fundamentally, it is about creating opportunities for young people. “I played rugby all my life,” Campbell says. “It has done a lot for me and that is the root behind this. Both my parents are Jamaican. For me it’s the power of the dual heritage, and I think a lot of people overlook that.
“Before the internet I knew I could take my boots on holiday and play wherever I went. You get that allyship, friendship in other countries, and it stays with you for life. I see young people and think: ‘You need to have that opportunity now because you don’t even know it exists.’ Other people having that opportunity is golden.
“I look at these players and go: ‘You think there’s a ceiling on this, but there isn’t.’ The conversation might be: ‘You’re wearing the wrong socks, you didn’t go to private school, you’re not going to play for England’ … but that’s not necessarily true. It’s just your opportunity hasn’t come.”
Davis is “unbelievably proud” that Hatfield, a powerful prop, is now playing club rugby in Australia. “He’s gone to live there for a year. I felt like it was mission accomplished, because he was quite a challenging young bloke … I get a warm feeling inside when you give opportunities to lads who wouldn’t normally have them.”
