?The Championship is producing coaches ? but Premiership teams are not interested?
Interview: Harvey Biljon, who has impressed with Jersey Reds and now Rotherham Titans, says the pathway to the top is often blocked
Charlie Morgan, Senior Rugby Writer 7 May 2024 ? 1:41pm
Topping the second tier with an underdog team, landing a high-profile cup upset in front of the television cameras and then stirring a sleeping giant; Harvey Biljon has had some year. To put it crudely, he would be a household name with equivalent success in football and clubs would be scrambling for his signature. As it stands, the 46-year-old is striving for the recognition he deserves.
?Who?s got naked photos of me somewhere?? Biljon jokes. ?Who have I p----- off along the way? I don?t know. I would like to think I?ve got no skeletons in the closet.
?I?ve tried to build evidence with what I?ve been doing on the pitch with players. Bar a couple of occasions, when a big job has come up, I haven?t got in the room to have the discussion before a club has decided to go another way.?
This season has seemed so long and loaded with storylines that last September feels aeons ago. But it is only six months since Jersey Reds, still the Championship title holders, beat Bath with a statement performance at the Rec. That 34-10 victory in the Premiership Cup, which TNT Sports televised, was underpinned by powerful mauling and capped with a 70-metre counter-attack that laid on a try for Russell Bennett.
While the hosts were far from full-strength, Jersey?s rounded display endorsed a decade of progress under Biljon. And then, 10 days later, the club?s professional arm ceased to exist. Players and staff drifted in different directions, as was grimly familiar from the debacles at Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish. Sam Grahamslaw, the loosehead prop, was recruited from Jersey by Bristol Bears, for instance.
Biljon had endured a unique summer in 2023. ?Absolute euphoria? over Jersey?s Championship victory was replaced by a sense of futility, because the club knew they could not go up to the Premiership on account of the league?s minimum standards criteria. A month after investors pulled the plug, citing a lack of clarity over league structures, Biljon joined Rotherham Titans to oversee the first-team with Gareth Lewis.
The Yorkshire outfit had been relegated to the fourth tier in 2020 when a mathematical formula was used to complete league results during Covid. Ahead of the 2023-24 season, Rotherham were aiming to celebrate their centenary by winning National 2 North. Do that and they would achieve their first promotion in 21 years, since earning a stint in the Premiership for 2003-04.
Biljon?s first act was to ?pull up the hand-brake? and ask his charges to look in the mirror. He interrogated data points ? unforced errors, penalty counts, conversion of opportunities ? and identified the ?superpowers? of his squad to develop complementary tactics.
?I needed to make sure people knew I was active as a coach and that I hadn?t gone into the wilderness,? admits Biljon. ?And, wherever I was coaching, that team were going to be making strides forward.?
With his young family staying in Jersey, Biljon flew over every Tuesday, staying until Sunday for two training sessions and a game. Rotherham tightened up their defence ? they would concede just over 18 points per match across 26 league outings ? and went on a phenomenal run of bonus-point wins after losing 26-20 to Leeds Tykes in November.
Biljon?s Jersey were a launchpad to a higher level
At the end of March, Titans ousted the Tykes, who slipped up again against Fylde. When Rotherham met Sheffield Tigers for their penultimate league match, they defied ?anxiety in the dressing room? to score 24 unanswered points in the second period. A week later, Titans completed their task by beating Billingham. Next season, they will be in National 1.
Biljon credits Charlie Capps, Jack Bergmanas and John Okafor as pivotal players. A ?very rewarding? experience has ?re-energised? him. Managing semi-professionals, and some amateurs, was a fresh challenge. Among the biggest compliments Biljon received was from Martin Jenkinson, the Rotherham director of rugby, who told him in the bar one evening: ?This club has got its mojo back?. Further success with Titans has consolidated Biljon?s impressive CV.
A scrum-half who arrived at Wasps from Natal Sharks in 2000 and scrapped with superstars like Matt Dawson and Rob Howley for game-time, Biljon began coaching at Blackheath. With Cornish Pirates, he won the British and Irish Cup in 2010 and, in the days before ringfencing, reached two play-off finals in 2011 and 2012. Biljon?s Jersey were renowned for a free-flowing style and as a launchpad towards a higher level for players and coaches. Unfortunately, Biljon himself now feels non-plussed as to how he can keep climbing the ladder. Uncertainty over the second tier cannot be helpful.
?At the moment, where do you go and earn your coaching spurs, where you?re in the trenches each week and you have to problem-solve and adapt?? Biljon asks. ?Where?s the pathway? It feels that when the opportunities come up, someone from abroad will come in or a 75-year-old will be appointed.?
Biljon offered his services to the Rugby Football Union as a sounding board on the second tier, without being enlisted. For now, he is back in a waiting pattern. ?You have to practice what you preach,? Biljon says. ?You talk to players about resilience and overcoming adversity; how, when they?re not selected, they need to stay motivated if an opportunity comes along, because they might be needed for the most important game of the season.
?It is not easy. I can only liken my situation to a player that has just come back from injury and isn?t picked for a quarter-final. They?ve got to train as hard as ever so they can deliver their best if, for whatever reason, they are needed in the semi-final and final.?
Jersey surprised everyone, including themselves, by winning the Championship last year. Their triumphant campaign, which turned out to be their last, was supposed to be the first step of a three-year plan with the goal of reaching the Premiership. On a personal level, Biljon was ambitious. However, he had stopped window-shopping to focus on what was in front of him.
?I remember looking towards whatever that next opportunity might be and thinking they were so few and far between,? he says. ?I made a conscious decision that, if I wanted to get to the top level, I was going to have to get Jersey Reds there myself.?
Rotherham are fortunate to have an individual with such drive, who believes he has ?much more to give?. More widely, English rugby union cannot afford for coaches to become disenchanted.
Always a Wasp
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