Richard Barrington ready to power up Ampthill
Richard Barrington has signed up to the Ampthill “Mob” and reassured that he’ll still have a target on his back most weeks.
Barrington spent nine trophy-laden seasons at English rugby’s favourite villains Saracens but is now on the books at their equally unloved feeder club following his summer move from Agen.
The loosehead, who turns 35 in a fortnight, has signed a two-year deal in a player-coach capacity and is certain to add considerable value to Ampthill on and off the pitch.
Barrington has a reputation for putting smiles on faces with his fun-loving ways, whereas his new club are often sneered at as a small-time outfit with perceived ideas above their station.
The walk through the Dillingham Park woods to get to the main first-team pitch is one of the main bones of contention.
Similarities
“People have the same attitude about Ampthill as Saracens.
“With the pitch being a bit further away from the changing rooms and stuff and people hate travelling down there.
“I don’t think they are the most favoured club by other Champ teams,” said Barrington.
“They are similar to Saracens in the context that not everyone likes them but they don’t care because it is about them.
“It is a good club and I am really enjoying my time there at the moment.
“They have punched above their weight, they got promoted five years ago and have been mid-table or there or thereabouts.
“Our goal this year is to go one better and really push.
“We’ll take it game by game but we’re looking to win our home games and upset a few teams away from home.”
Ampthill’s Young Talent
While Barrington is entering the twilight years of his career at the coalface, the likelihood is he’ll be surrounded by lots of young talent from Saracens this season.
“Over the years loads of Sarries players have made their men’s debut at Ampthill: Theo Dan, Nick Isiekwe to name but a few, and there will be a few more coming through.
“Kennedy Sylvester has done a bit of training with us, he’s a big boy and hopefully he brings everything he’s got.”
In truth, Barrington could probably still do a job for Saracens.
Having spent two seasons in the roughhouse ProD2 in France with Agen, the four-time Premiership and three-time Champions Cup winner is certainly battle-hardened.
French Scrummaging
“Scrummaging in D2 is probably harder than in the Premiership. I spoke to boys who have played Top 14 and D2, and they agreed, D2 is one of the toughest leagues,” he said.
“The refereeing is not as strong so there is a lot more underhand tactics and you get players who are massive but not mobile enough to play Top 14.
“It was a learning curve. I fancied myself as a strong scrummager but it only took me a few games to know that it doesn’t come easy, you have got to work hard.
“It’ll help me as well in my coaching. When you scrum in the same league the whole time you don’t know about different ways of doing it.
“In Agen they had a different way they wanted to scrum and I could see the positives and negatives, so I can take the best bits.”
Just how tough and rough ProD2 is became apparent when Agen played local rivals Montauban soon after his move across the channel.
“Their big second row sends one into our hooker and he can’t remember anything about the weekend let alone the game after that.
“It doesn’t get picked up by the TMO because the scrum went down, but he got cited and was banned for three months. That was one of my intros into scrummaging in ProD2.”
French Culture
Barrington is also well versed in the volatility of French rugby having seen head coach Bernard Goutta lose the changing room and then his job.
“As a coach he is superb but I would question his management skills,” he said.
“In my first season, when he coached the whole season, we finished sixth and we just lost in the playoffs, to Montauban in the quarter-finals.
“The season after we started strongly but then the wheels started coming off. When Bernard left, the club was probably in a better place, the boys weren’t scared to make a mistake.
“But results didn’t get better. A couple of coaches got thrown in at the deep end, they floated at the start and kept their heads above water but it is good for Agen that they have a new head coach in (Sébastien Cal-vet), the French U20s guy.
“Talking to some of the boys there, they say he has changed a lot around.
“It’s good that they are finding their feet. Without that head coach mentality, where even the coaches have fear of the head coach because he demands high standards, things can slip.”
Career Options
Barrington had the option of staying in France as well as getting a job in the City or playing part-time in Ireland, where his wife is from.
However, a rugby environment is where he feels most comfortable and Barrington is looking forward to pushing on with his coaching career.
“I did a bit in France, with the espoirs, around the scrum. I can understand French but my pronunciation with my accent wasn’t great but I got by.”
Better than backs and skills coach, Welshman Barry Maddocks, by the sounds of it.
“During attack drills Barry would be shouting ‘Eglise, Eglise’, which means church in French, when he should have been saying glisser (slide).
“The French were like, what is he on about – ‘church this, church that’.”
Barrington has been doing some scrum coaching with Saracens women and Saracens U19s in addition to his forwards player/ coach role at Ampthill.
“It was a throw up between three or four opportunities I had. But when I spoke to Mark Lavery (Ampthill DoR) and Paul Turner (head coach) and heard how they run the club and where they want to be as a club, I thought it would be a brilliant opportunity for me to start my coaching career, plus I still think I have something to offer as a player.
“So I’ll see how long the body holds and rip into coaching as well.”
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