Weekend Interview - Right place, right time works well for Simon Middleton

Simon Middleton, the England Women head coach looks on during a training session. Picture: David Rogers/RFU/The RFU Collection

WHEN he first started playing rugby union at Knottingley, Simon Middleton would never have guessed even switching codes to star with neighbouring Castleford Tigers, let alone returning to Yorkshire more than 30 years later in charge of the England Women's national side.

“It would have been pie in the sky” is his brief summation when posed that question ahead of facing Canada at Doncaster Knights’ Castle Park tomorrow.

That is how it happened, though, in a fascinating career that has recently seen Middleton travel across the globe as one of the RFU’s elite coaches.

He left his role as Bishop Burton College director of rugby to become England Women’s Sevens head coach in 2014, assisting the first XV team when they won the World Cup the same year, and took on his current role in 2015, finishing runners-up to New Zealand in last year’s defence.

All the time, he has still lived in Pontefract which, fittingly, is barely 19 miles north of where his England side, venturing away from the cocoon of Twickenham, will now play their first-ever Test match in the Broad Acres.

Yet, in an exclusive interview with The Yorkshire Post, the 52-year-old readily conceded most of his storied career – which included a long spell as Leeds Tykes assistant as they soared into the Heineken Cup – has occurred simply by pure chance.

“I was telling the tale to the girls just recently how I got into union,” recalled Middleton.

“At school, I was a skinny, ginger-haired kid who nobody wanted in their team. But my brother was playing at Knottingley and it was him who got me in there.

BACK THEN: Simon Middleton scorches away for a try for Castleford against Keighley.

“I was 17 and I just got the bug. I loved it at Knottingley; it was a brilliant club, great people.

“I was a Fev (Featherstone Rovers) fan as my dad was Fev-mad but I loved the rugby union internationals. When the Five Nations came around it was the best time of the year and I loved playing; I lived for Saturdays when I was with Knottingley.

“But then – when the move to Castleford happened – it was literally right place, right time.”

Although Knottingley were way down the pyramid when the entire sport was still officially amateur – they currently reside in Yorkshire Three alongside the likes of Wensleydale – the nearby Castleford rugby league side was, of course, the illustrious semi-professional neighbours.

OPENING: Former England Women head coach Gary Street. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

Indeed, in 1989, just two years before Middleton made the switch, they had bought Graham Steadman from Featherstone for a world-record £170,000 fee.

Ironically, Steadman started out at Knottingley, too, just like Kellingley-born Middleton.

“He left just before I really got into the Knottingley team,” remembers Middleton.