Interview with professional rugby player Charlie Beckett

Hey guys. I hope you’re all well and enjoyed last week’s blog. This week’s edition is a little bit different. Thursday, I interviewed professional rugby player, Charlie Beckett. Despite some technical glitches that occurred at the beginning (not ideal!), it was a joy to interview him and I really appreciated his patience and honesty throughout. It was great fun and I’m so grateful he took some time out of his day to chat. Here’s how I got on…

For those reading my blog that don’t know you, can you please give them an insight into who you are and the position you currently play?

“I’m Charlie, I’m 24 and I’m from Liverpool. I play Second Row. Growing up, my Dad played rugby and my Granddad was the President of the Club. I was big and good at bashing into people so I played too. We’re all mad rugby fans. When I turned 13 or 14, I had to make a decision whether to continue to play rugby or do something else. I continued to play and left home when I was sixteen. I moved to Leicester and I was part of the Leicester Tigers Academy for four years. I then moved to Gloucester when I was twenty and played there for two years. I then joined Jersey and have just finished two years competing in the Championship”.

Who influenced you to play the game?

“I’d say growing up watching my Dad play was pretty special. Every weekend would be spent at the rugby club. I was never forced to play though. Growing up, I played football and cricket but rugby was always in the background and I’ve always loved it. I’m so passionate about it and I had the opportunity to play with a rugby loving family so it was a brilliant time for me growing up”.

What has been the hardest thing you’ve found to be since becoming a professional rugby player? Were there any set backs or sacrifices that had to be made?

“Everyone gets injuries, injuries are tough. Though, I’ve been lucky and not suffered too badly with them. I had an operation on my knee that kept me out for four months. I think for me though, leaving home was tough at sixteen. There’s certain things you have to sacrifice, particularly at the end of your teens. You can’t live a certain life and party hard. Some people don’t understand that and that can be tough but I wouldn’t change any of it and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat”.

What have you found most enjoyable? Is it ever how you imagined it would be?

“It’s everything I wanted it to be and more. I get to do what I love the most in the world and get paid for it. I also get to do it with my best mates. It’s easily the best job in the world. 

What’s been your biggest achievement in rugby? Playing for England U20’s must have been pretty incredible?

“Yeah, definitely. From the age of fourteen, I wanted to play for England. I’ve got my U16’s shirt on my bedroom wall. My proudest moment though was probably being Captain of the the U18’s tour to South Africa. Being Captain for England was huge. Winning the U20’s Six Nations was amazing too. Representing my country was amazing and something I’ve always wanted to do”.

Am I right in thinking you’ve coached Cheltenham Tigers Ladies? How did that opportunity come about? Is coaching something you may want to do in the future when you finish playing?

“I’ve always been fairly interested in women’s rugby because my sister has always played. She plays for England now and my other sister plays rugby at university so I’ve always been a big fan and wanted to get involved in. I enjoyed coaching too. In my first year at Gloucester, I coached the U16’s team. Two of the pro rugby players at the club were coaching Cheltenham Tigers Ladies at the time but they then left so the ladies needed two new coaches so myself and my flatmate Tom Hudson applied and they foolishly gave us the jobs. Unfortunately I had to leave after one season because I moved to Jersey but Tom is still coaching three years later but it was one of the best decisions I ever made. They were a brilliant group of girls and I had the best time. It’s a brilliant rugby club and to see girls that were new to rugby admitting they didn’t know much, you could see by the end the improvements they’d made individually and as a group. What I’ve learnt from coaching women I think is sometimes I think men think they know it all especially at that sort of level whereas the girls were willing to admit they didn’t always know what they were doing and it was something they wanted to learn. Whether it’s what I want to do when I’ve finished playing rugby, I don’t know. I really enjoy it and even if I just coached junior rugby and still be involved in  the game, that would be fun but I don’t know if I’d want it as a career as you’d move around a lot. I’d like to have a family in the future and I don’t know if I’d want that risk of having three years somewhere say and then having to move our life to somewhere different. I think rugby is quite a selfish career and I think there’s other things I’d like to do in the future. 

“What was it like playing for Jersey in the Championship compared to playing in the Premiership? Was it just as intense?

“It’s a different sort of intense. You obviously don’t have the top tier internationals that you do at Premiership clubs so games are maybe a little bit slower and the skill level differs a little. The players I play with are still skillful but the pitches vary to the Prem. They’re not as good a quality. It’s more attritional, especially in the front five. It’s very old school and sometimes after a game, I’d come off sorer from a Championship game than playing for Leicester or Gloucester because so much is based around scrum and maul whereas maybe it’s a more expansive game in the Premiership. I do think you learn a lot as a front five forward in the Championship though and it helps you a lot moving forward. 

What advice would you give to your younger self? Would you do anything differently to what you did growing up? 

“I don’t know if I’d do anything differently because you learn from mistakes but the advice I’d give is maybe just to chill out a bit more. Especially when I was eighteen, I was so wound up and everything in my life was rugby. As much as I want to be the best rugby player I can be, I think it affected me off the pitch. I think I was quite an uptight person and I probably wasn’t the most fun to be around. It probably affected certain relationships I had at the end of my team years I think I’d get stressed over a lot whereas now five years later, I’ve learnt to relax a bit more because ultimately, if I lose a game (which I hate of course), I’ve got a family that love me and I’m lucky to do what I do. Being more relaxed I think has helped improve my game too”.