Joe Launchbury: Coaching kids and captaincy has brought best out of me
On his return from injury, the Wasps lock tells Alex Lowe how he is desperate for major silverware after two years of disruptions
Alex Lowe, Rugby Correspondent
Friday April 01 2022, 12.01am, The Times
Joe Launchbury’s mind flashed back a decade during the Six Nations as he watched Ollie Chessum, the Leicester Tigers flanker, make his England debut at the age of 21. Launchbury was the same age when he broke into the senior team for an England victory over Fiji in the autumn of 2012 — a fresh-faced lock with a heavyweight frame, an introvert who relished the physicality and confrontation of Test rugby, a young man still searching for his true self.
Launchbury’s rise to the Test stage had been rapid. Three years earlier he had been released by Harlequins and was stacking shelves in Sainsbury’s while playing part-time for Worthing.
The 2009 academy graduate class at Harlequins was unusually strong, with Joe Marler, Will Collier and Charlie Matthews among those offered contracts. It came as no surprise to Launchbury that he was cut. His schoolwork at Christ’s Hospital had been suffering with the rugby commitments. Tony Diprose, who then ran the club’s academy, told him to go off to university, but to keep enjoying his rugby because an opportunity might pop up.
It did — and Launchbury has been at Wasps ever since, a one-club professional who assumed the captaincy in 2016 and now holds a coaching role with the under-18s. Over the past decade, the quiet man of English rugby has found his voice.
“If you had asked me a few years ago, I never thought I would be captain of the club. I never thought those bits interested me,” he says. “When I was younger I lacked confidence a little bit. There was an earn-your-stripes culture, which I was on board with, probably because of my dad’s military background.
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“That prevented me from speaking as much. I remember in meetings feeling like I had a great point, but I didn’t say anything. Even now I don’t want to be the loudest voice in the room, but the expectation of a captain has changed. I have got a love for it. I love the Monday-to-Friday style of leadership. I love preparing the team, how you speak around the team, the pointers you can give to a young but talented team. I’m fascinated by that.”
That fascination — and a determination to achieve something during his nine-month rehabilitation from the knee-ligament injury that cost him a shot at the British & Irish Lions tour — prompted Launchbury to sign up for his Level 3 coaching qualification. It involved four days of study at the University of Nottingham, sitting at round-tables in the rugby clubhouse with fellow players from the Gallagher Premiership and Allianz Premier 15s, discussing coaching methodologies.
Tamara Taylor, the former England lock, is Launchbury’s mentor and he is gaining practical experience by working as defence coach for Wasps Under-18, having spent time while injured studying first-team games to pick out details to help his team-mates. “My memories of being an under-18s player were not that positive,” he says. “I found it really hard to juggle rugby with the pressure of A-levels. It is an interesting age-group because you have a bunch of guys chasing a senior contract, but they only give out a couple every year, so there is a high failure rate.
“I wanted to go back to that, see it through a different lens, and give back to that age group. I love the idea of making someone better. It has brought the best out of me as a player. I am 31 in a couple of weeks’ time and I still feel there is a lot more to come — and that stems from having to bring it every day as a captain.”
Launchbury, unsurprisingly, is no autocrat. He engaged a specialist to conduct personality tests on senior players at Wasps so he could build a balanced leadership group.
It is a subject he has discussed with Ellis Genge, who is in his first season as Leicester Tigers captain, while on England duty.
“When Ellis was offered the Leicester captaincy, he said he would take it, but only if he could do the job on his terms. It is so important that you are true to who you are, that you don’t try and fit into a captaincy model because I don’t think one exists,” he says. “It is the same with coaching or being a director of rugby.”
Launchbury’s importance to Wasps cannot be overstated and Eddie Jones fast-tracked him back into the England set-up during the Six Nations after two 40-minute club appearances. He is one of four front-line locks along with Maro Itoje, Charlie Ewels and Nick Isiekwe, all of whom boast different qualities.
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Launchbury played only once in the 2019 World Cup, against the United States, although rightly feels he made a major contribution to England’s run to the final. He is proud of that — but wants another shot at the big prize, especially after the disappointment of 2015. If there were one image to capture England’s dismal home World Cup it was Launchbury, bereft and broken following a defeat by Australia that confirmed their elimination in the pool stages, having to pose with the man-of-the- match award.
“My goal when I was injured was to get back in that England side,” Launchbury says. “It is crazy to think I have lived it for a decade — but I am not there just to collect caps. I have still got something around a World Cup that I haven’t achieved. I have really been starved of rugby. I have played something like 15 games since Covid hit. I was 29 going into Covid and now I am nearly 31.
“I promised myself when I was injured that I would really enjoy these next few years, whatever they present. The passion for me to be the best player I can be will not burn out.”
Launchbury had an opportunity to leave Wasps a few years ago, to follow Christian Wade, Elliot Daly, Nathan Hughes, Willie le Roux and Danny Cipriani in exploring pastures new, with Exeter Chiefs interested. But he stayed put. The Wasps environment has helped him to find his voice and, in an era where loyalty means less, he is desperate to lift a trophy in black and gold. The run to the 2020 Premiership final was a thrill, but it ended with Launchbury in tears, bereft again on the Twickenham turf.
A title shot is not on the cards this season, but Wasps, with Launchbury and Jack Willis back in action, will be a force in the European Challenge Cup. “I feel so accepted here. To have left and for this club to have then gone on and won something, I couldn’t have lived with myself,” he says. “I remember Francesco Totti talking about Roma and saying that he would rather win one trophy with Roma than ten somewhere else. I have always felt that here. I am in the right place for what I want to achieve.”
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