Ask yourself: Have you made a difference?

Steve Hill talks to Nick Scott, below, director of rugby at Pesaro RFC in Italy Serie A

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What was your rugby playing background?

I didn’t go to a rugby playing school, so learned my rugby at one of the first clubs to have mini rugby, Newark. I played there in the junior teams before playing at Newcastle University. I came back and played all my rugby at Newark.

Why did you get into coaching rugby and what has been your journey to arrive at your current position?

I was club captain in the days when captains were like assistant coaches, so it seemed a natural progression to coach the first team at Newark when I finished playing. In 2000, my farm flooded and a fellow farmer Dusty Hare suggested I apply for the RFU YDO role in Leicestershire - during that time helping develop the likes of Harry Ellis, Dan Cole and Sam Vesty. I then coached at Loughborough University with Dave Morris and Tosh Askew. From there an RFU Coach Development Officer and finally National Coach Development Manager, where we got the RFU Level 4 endorsed and I led on the content of 3 Union qualifications and CPD for nine years.

You moved from the UK to coach in Italy — how did that come about?

Knowing when to move on is a skill coaches should embrace! I enjoyed hugely my time at the RFU, I genuinely felt that despite the deeply conservative instincts of elements of the RFU (those who usually wear blazers and ties, not tracksuits), we were making real progress. Coaching in rugby was progressing and player centred, game based coaching was becoming the norm at all levels of the game. Then some of my key allies in the professional game left, and for a while the more conservative elements seemed to prevail. It was time to move back into a world of players, coaches and the modern game.