Autumn 2019Interview with Matt Calland

Rochdale Hornets Head Coach

Founded in 1871, Rochdale Hornets is the borough’s only professional rugby league club and competes in the Championship, the second tier of English rugby league. Hornets is one of the original 22 rugby clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, making it one of the world’s first rugby league clubs.

In April 2019, Rochdale Hornets appointed Matt Calland as their new head coach on a one-and-a-half-year deal.

Katie Davies spoke to Matt Calland about how he plans to improve the club’s performance next season – guiding Hornets to success.

How did you get into rugby?
My dad was a mad Widnes fan when they were a good team in the 1980s. I was about 10 years old when he took me to my first game and I have been hooked ever since.

I started playing rugby when I started high school; a guy called Neil Wood introduced the school to rugby league.

I played for St Helen’s team on a Saturday and then Pilkington Recs at Under 18s level. My coach was best friends with Steve Deakin, who coached Oldham St Anne’s at the time, so when I was 18, I moved to Oldham to live in Royton.

I had a year with Oldham St Anne’s, met some friends for life, and played for Lancashire and Great Britain. That is how four of us ended up signing for Hornets: myself, Martin Kay, Adrian Belle and Steve Gartland, who has sadly passed away.

Hornets was my first professional club.

So you have come full circle - Hornets was your first professional team and you are back coaching Hornets.
Yes, that is the reason I am back really.

I have been coaching at Hopwood Hall College since 2003. I started the academy there; the college didn’t even have a rugby team at the time. I was given a five-year target to become national champions and we won within three years.

In 2007, I joined Halifax to assist Martin Hall, who I initially met at Hornets. I had a couple of years assisting before he promoted me to head coach. We reached three grand finals and won the Championship in 2010. This was the first time they had won a cup since the Challenge Cup in 1987, so it was a really successful stint.

After that I went to Rochdale Mayfield and spent 10 years there still playing and coaching. We won the national cup in 2016, which was the year Steve Gartland passed away. We actually won the cup on his birthday; it was one of those moments you never forget.

How did it feel to come back to Hornets?
The last three months have been the most testing times of my career. The Championship is such a good standard and the squad we’ve got currently just isn’t strong enough. We have tried to make changes but it is too late, so it is a case of rebuilding for next season, reshaping the team and bringing in people who want to play and compete for Rochdale.

We have been relegated now to League One, but obviously the plan is to get back up eventually. It is still not easy; this isn’t a quick fix and could take years. You have got to be realistic.

Steve Kerr, Hornets CEO, said that you are the ‘missing piece of the Hornets puzzle’, why does he think that?
I had a long professional career, got to a high level of performance and have been at the Hopwood academy for 16 years, so I know the game inside out locally.

I have probably come to the club at the worst possible time - I have joined a sinking ship which has been really tough to take on. My teams generally win, I usually create a winning culture, and coming to a losing one like this has really opened my eyes. There needs to be big changes for next season and I think I can be the man to do that.

How will you improve the club’s performance?
I think we need to create a pathway; we need to use the academy to attract younger players and get them ready to play for Rochdale Hornets. We are trying to get as many local players as we can so that most of the players live nearby. I want the nucleus of the squad to be Rochdale people and have Rochdale at heart.

How do you plan on getting Hornets back up to the Championship?
Clubs at the top end of the Championship are spending a whole lot of money to push to get into the Super League, and we don’t have those funds to spend, so it is virtually impossible to compete with those clubs.

My long-term goal is to create a winning team, get a winning culture and get a feel-good factor about the place but then the bigger goal is to get Hornets into the Championship and have a sustainable organisation so we can sustain our position. We need to make sure we’re ready, can get up and stay up.

I coached Mayfield from 2006 – 2009 then again from 2011 – 2018, and I played last season too in centre position. I love playing rugby; it’s the only time I feel like that’s where I am supposed to be. I can not play now and the transitional period is very hard, you feel sort of lost. Coaching is so frustrating because when you play you have just got yourself to worry about, but coaching means you worry about the whole squad.

Everyone learns in different ways and everybody is motivated in different ways, you have just got to try and get everything right, it is a lot more complicated being a coach then being a player. It is all worthwhile though, when you get a squad all on the same wavelength and working hard.

In terms of who you have coached, who has been your greatest achievement?
Jack Ashworth is probably the most successful. He came to Hopwood Hall. I saw something in him – how hard he trained and how he was in the gym. I took him down to St Helen’s and he’s now a full-time Super League player and will be playing at Wembley in the cup final. He is a local Rochdale lad, so it is a great achievement.

What is your favourite memory from playing?
I have got so many. When I signed as an amateur for Rochdale, being a 19-year-old playing with players who were already my friends, it was such a good time for me. All I ever wanted to do growing up was get paid to play rugby. Playing for Rochdale Hornets was a dream come true.

I went playing in Australia which was a really good experience. I left England a boy and came back a man. I signed for Featherstone when I got back, then I moved to Bradford, which was the best move of my career. That is where everything kick started – I played at Wembley twice, got selected to play for England with players like Jason Robinson and Martin Offiah. We won the Super League in 1997, so you could say that was the pinnacle.