Barnard Castle School’s master in charge of rugby and former England international Lee Dickson has taken up a consultancy role with Newcastle Falcons.
Dickson has been leading the school’s multiple representative sides for nearly six years following an incredible career in rugby, where he made 349 Premiership appearances, as well representing England 18 times between 2012 and 2014.
In his playing days, Dickson was a scrum-half and that is where his new role will be focused at the Falcons. He made 49 appearances for Falcons before moving his play at Northampton and later Bedford, where he finished his playing days in 2019.
He said: “I will be coming in as a skills coach, so I’ll be focusing mainly on the scrum-halfs. It will be one day a week so it works well around what we have going on here at school. The school has always had a good relationship with the club, with a lot of our kids moving into their system, and with some going on to play professional rugby.”
This is highlighted with a quick scroll through the school’s alumni.
As well as Dickson who attended the school himself, he is in the company of Rob Andrew, Matthew Tait as well as Rory and Tony Underwood, who have all gone on to represent the country at national level.
At the school there are two teams per year group, but there is also a push to make sure even those who aren’t competing for the school have an opportunity to enjoy the sport.
This requires a very fluid and individual way of coaching for Dickson and his team.
“We start at under 8s before moving into contact rugby at under 9s but we have three moderations of the game to include everyone. These include touch, then there’s a hybrid version of the rules, before moving into full contact.”
In recent times Guy Pepper, Joe Davis and Jacob Oliver have left the school and moved into the world of professional rugby, with all three representing England at various age levels.
“Before I started here there was Luke Monument and Martin Pepper who led the rugby, and they instilled such a great rugby journey here at Barney.
“I have three sons at the school and they all take inspiration from what they see has been achieved by people like Guy, Joe and Jacob.”
