Loughborough Students‘ Chris Preen has been on a rollercoaster journey so far in his career that has seen him change sports, suffer horrific injuries and ultimately switch positions within rugby, but he wouldn’t change a thing.
The 20-year-old, 15 and a half stone centre has always been a physical player and in his brief footballing days was quickly told by his coach he might have picked the wrong sport. “I knew from a young age I was a quite physical,” Preen says, “so my football coach told me I probably need to go and play rugby. My dad took me, he had played when he was younger, and I’ve been playing ever since.”
A ruptured PCL in his knee in the critical period just after the Covid-19 pandemic forced him to change tack.
“I started off at Reigate RFC,” he said. “Then got picked up by the Surrey county set-up, and then from that I ended up at Harlequins DPP Academy. I’d been to the England U16s camp but the U17s was cancelled due to Covid and then I was on the sidelines for 10 months. Having only played 60 minutes in the last two years before Quins’ contract decision, I decided to go to Loughborough and they could keep an eye on me there.
“At Loughborough we’ve got a BUCS side and a National League set up, and at Quins I was only going to get loaned out to a National 2 club so Loughborough was a good option for me. I’ve gone there to get a decent degree, and to be fair I’ve had a decent journey which has seen me swap positions.”
That positional switch has taken him from the forwards to the backs, and though another nasty injury threatened to derail his ambitions once again, things are back on track.
“I was quite a tall kid and played all three positions in the back row but I’m still only 6ft 1in so I wasn’t really a lineout option at senior level and in November of my first year they switched me to centre.
“Physically I was able to dominate in ball-carrying and tackling but my handling and positional play had to improve, and I had to be more of a playmaker which is something that’s taken me a while to add to my game and get to grips with.
“I had a couple of games there and started to pick it up quite well but had a pretty bad injury, snapping my ankle in half, which was quite frustrating but after missing the rest of that campaign this season has been quite exceptional for me.”
This season ended with the BUCS Super Rugby title and though Loughborough lost a thrilling BUCS Championship final to Exeter after extra time, Preen is delighted with the progress he’s made and optimistic he will continue in the right direction, and Loughborough can go one better next season.
“I’ve had a weird journey so far but I wouldn’t change it,” he concluded. “This season I’ve played 24 games, got used to the position and we won the league so it’s been up and down for sure but I can’t argue with it now.
“I’ve got two more years left at Loughborough, so I’d like to have another good season behind me, play for England students and get some offers. But that all comes from playing well every week, and hopefully we’ll win the cup this time around!”
