{"id":381284,"date":"2025-12-30T22:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/381284\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T22:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:23:07","slug":"there-is-no-ceiling-for-these-players-jamaica-targeting-2031-rugby-world-cup-rugby-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/381284\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There is no ceiling for these players\u2019: Jamaica targeting 2031 Rugby World Cup | Rugby union"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigerian influence within English rugby union is strong and getting stronger<\/a>. But could Jamaican rugby, in time, become just as significant?<\/p>\n

There is no shortage of talent. Jamaica UK Rugby<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen had been in a difficult domestic situation,\u201d Davis says. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s authorities<\/a>. Here is an example of people at grassroots level, working as volunteers, trying to change that reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to create a sustainable pathway so we could work with the same lads and develop them,\u201d Davis says. \u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis has since moved on and is now working to create a pathway for young players of Nigerian heritage. Jamaica Rugby UK\u2019s president, Hughton Campbell, says he played a key role.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe met Phil and said we wanted to do something in the UK for 15s,\u201d Campbell says. \u201cWhere Phil took it to the next level was having one group of people who were going to represent Jamaica.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hughton Campbell, the president of Jamaica Rugby UK, has combined a telecoms job with overseeing a complex playing and coaching programme. Photograph: Gary Bide Photography<\/p>\n

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\u2013based players finished third at the Youth Olympics qualifiers in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to have something in the UK, a crossover: people going from the UK to Jamaica and vice versa,\u201d Campbell says. Covid-19 intervened and longer-lasting restrictions in Jamaica necessitated taking UK-based players to tournaments after the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to Jamaica this year and met with the prime minister [Andrew Holness],\u201d Campbell says. \u201cHe agreed to find a pitch for us. There isn\u2019t an official rugby pitch in Jamaica.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis, meanwhile, highlights the work in the Caribbean. \u201cCurtis Wilmot and Tahj-Jay Lynch have done the development and coaching there,\u201d he says. \u201cTahj-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.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are the long-term goals? \u201cWe\u2019ve put a focus on the 2031 Rugby World Cup,\u201d Campbell says. \u201cPrior 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 \u2026 and with our females in sevens, we believe we\u2019ve got a really strong group who could possibly take us to the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

For any team the opportunity to train together is important. But often these sides come together in the week of a tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a massive challenge,\u201d Campbell says. \u201cWe 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\u2019s our challenge. If we had more opportunity to be together, we\u2019d be out there competing quite strongly.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of this comes cheap \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a lot of people digging into their pockets,\u201d Campbell says of current funding. \u201cIf I had a magic wand it would be: could World Rugby create a kind of partnership for a high-performance camp in Jamaica? That\u2019s probably more effective than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

How does Campbell manage a complex programme alongside his day job? \u201cIt\u2019s quite difficult,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m self-employed and that allows me time to work at my pace and do what I\u2019ve got to do. I\u2019ve got good people around me in management and governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Campbell and Davis, fundamentally, it is about creating opportunities for young people. \u201cI played rugby all my life,\u201d Campbell says. \u201cIt has done a lot for me and that is the root behind this. Both my parents are Jamaican. For me it\u2019s the power of the dual heritage, and I think a lot of people overlook that.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s sevens squad at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Photograph: Jamaica UK Rugby<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore 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: \u2018You need to have that opportunity now because you don\u2019t even know it exists.\u2019 Other people having that opportunity is golden.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at these players and go: \u2018You think there\u2019s a ceiling on this, but there isn\u2019t.\u2019 The conversation might be: \u2018You\u2019re wearing the wrong socks, you didn\u2019t go to private school, you\u2019re not going to play for England\u2019 \u2026 but that\u2019s not necessarily true. It\u2019s just your opportunity hasn\u2019t come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis is \u201cunbelievably proud\u201d that Hatfield, a powerful prop, is now playing club rugby in Australia. \u201cHe\u2019s gone to live there for a year. I felt like it was mission accomplished, because he was quite a challenging young bloke \u2026 I get a warm feeling inside when you give opportunities to lads who wouldn\u2019t normally have them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an extract taken from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To sign up, just visit this page<\/a> and follow the instructions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigerian influence within English rugby union is strong and getting stronger. But could Jamaican rugby, in time, become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-381284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}