Jun 21, 2026 · 2 hr 24 min · 22 segments
This weeks #Rugbystory was born in Basingstoke but made in the north east. Beginning his sporting story with the round ball & the Newcastle United academy he found rugby in high school & loved it…
Ollie StedmanGuest
Jon HetheringtonHost
don't really know to be honest I was always I was always a kid who had to be like out and doing stuff and sport was the way to do that like I wasn't the best behaved at school I'd find my way into trouble when I had nothing to do and I think my parents figured that out for a very young age I did sport whether it was football cricket rugby whatever it was I did sport nearly every night of the week weekends and it was kind of the the reason for me to sort of push a bit in life and give you that competitive edge give you the teamwork bit give you um the exercise kind of everything so as a young as early as i can remember i was playing sport um with whether i was with my dad my granddad or i think probably joined my first football team about five years old so that was like whatever and the fives just chasing the ball around Doing sport non-stop, which obviously probably drove competitiveness because I think when I was younger, it wasn't as nice and as friendly as it is now where it's participation and taking part and enjoying it.
Yeah, and without knowing it all, you've probably built transferable skills for outside of rugby and you've also honed what type of player you're going to be with hand-eye coordination, agility, mobility, understanding space and stuff in it, mate, without realising it properly.
Like, having moved into the real world as it is of work, and I see so many of my former teammates who are similar ages to me, retired in the last, say, three or four years, the amount of lads who are doing really well is lovely to see, because they don't have the 10-plus years experience that other...
People in the work industry have, but they've got the ability to work hard, work as a team, work under pressure is a big thing.
The average person doesn't necessarily get exposed to the pressures of seven day turnarounds, five day, six day turnarounds.
um and being able to communicate effectively um leadership all these skills that most of the boys are doing well for themselves i can't think of anyone out of certainly my network where they're really struggling in whatever field they chose to chose to pursue post rugby so there's definitely a lot of a lot of transferable skills and i think all the data is out there in the world to show that kids who who are easily coached and uh involved in sport from a young age generally do pretty well in life so um yeah definitely helped me for sure
don't really know to be honest I was always I was always a kid who had to be like out and doing stuff and sport was the way to do that like I wasn't the best behaved at school I'd find my way into trouble when I had nothing to do and I think my parents figured that out for a very young age I did sport whether it was football cricket rugby whatever it was I did sport nearly every night of the week weekends and it was kind of the the reason for me to sort of push a bit in life and give you that competitive edge give you the teamwork bit give you um the exercise kind of everything so as a young as early as i can remember i was playing sport um with whether i was with my dad my granddad or i think probably joined my first football team about five years old so that was like whatever and the fives just chasing the ball around Doing sport non-stop, which obviously probably drove competitiveness because I think when I was younger, it wasn't as nice and as friendly as it is now where it's participation and taking part and enjoying it.
Yeah, and without knowing it all, you've probably built transferable skills for outside of rugby and you've also honed what type of player you're going to be with hand-eye coordination, agility, mobility, understanding space and stuff in it, mate, without realising it properly.
Like, having moved into the real world as it is of work, and I see so many of my former teammates who are similar ages to me, retired in the last, say, three or four years, the amount of lads who are doing really well is lovely to see, because they don't have the 10-plus years experience that other...
People in the work industry have, but they've got the ability to work hard, work as a team, work under pressure is a big thing.
The average person doesn't necessarily get exposed to the pressures of seven day turnarounds, five day, six day turnarounds.
um and being able to communicate effectively um leadership all these skills that most of the boys are doing well for themselves i can't think of anyone out of certainly my network where they're really struggling in whatever field they chose to chose to pursue post rugby so there's definitely a lot of a lot of transferable skills and i think all the data is out there in the world to show that kids who who are easily coached and uh involved in sport from a young age generally do pretty well in life so um yeah definitely helped me for sure
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