Sean Long reveals England rugby union coaching dream and Oldham’s Super League plan
Sean Long
Sean Long has rugby league on his mind – and England rugby union in his dreams.
He is at his desk in Oldham working the phones. Days after celebrating a first trophy as head coach he is busy planning his tilt at the next.
Long is a rugby league great, one of the most decorated players of his generation. A scrum-half who won everything with St Helens before injury cut him down, changing his life “so completely” he tried to end it.
A troubled soul with a wild past who found not only salvation and purpose in coaching but an inner peace and life balance that now sees him reaching for the stars.
“To coach my country, to coach England in rugby union, 100 per cent that’s a dream,” he says. “I got close in 2018. It remains a massive dream.”
Union is well stocked with rugby league stars in key coaching positions: Andy Farrell (Ireland and Lions), Shaun Edwards (France), Kevin Sinfield (England) and Mike Forshaw (Wales) to name four.
“I look at Faz (Farrell) who I have the utmost respect for,” Long adds. “He’s evolving the game all the time, offence and defence. That’s what I’m trying to do in league.
“But I’ve got to get runs on the board. I can’t just say ‘yeah I’ve done it one year in league, we’re champions’ and park that. I’ve got to keep going. The best way to put myself in contention to coach England one day is to take Oldham up to Super League. That’s my goal.”
As a player Long won five Challenge Cups, four Super League titles, three Lance Todd Trophies, two World Club Challenges and one Man of Steel award.
He twice came close to switching codes, when Clive Woodward approached him before the 2003 Rugby World Cup and again in 2006 when Sale offered him a deal.
He would finish up in union, turning out in the lower leagues for Preston Grasshoppers and Orrell as he tried to wean himself off day-to-day playing life – before applying for the job of England attack coach despite never having coached in the code.
“I had a meeting with Eddie Jones. Went really well actually,” he says. “Eddie was looking for a change of ideas. Got down to the last three. I was made up. We said we’d keep in touch.”
Soon after Long was recruited by Harlequins and in his second season with the Londoners got back in touch with Jones to remind him his England ambition had not diminished.
“But then Covid hit and having to move back up north it was quite difficult,” he adds. “I had to make a decision whether to keep travelling down to London, move there or stay up here. I ended up going to Leeds [Rhinos].”
It appeared that was the end of it but, talking exclusively to Love Rugby League, Long makes it clear that is not the case.
He has just led Oldham to the League 1 crown, the club’s first title for nine years, losing just one game along the way and seeing the crowd increase from 400 to a near 20-year high of almost 3,000.
Those same fans turned out in town to see the 47-year old parade the trophy with his team – the smile he wore a sharp contrast to the mental anguish that drove him to despair a decade ago.
He remembers it well, the sense of loss when injury forced the curtain down on his playing career and the “dark times” which followed.
“All of a sudden you’re alone in the big wide world,” he says. “You can do what you want, but you don’t want that. You want what you had.
“Being told what to do, what to eat, when to turn up, what to wear. Professional sport is like the military. And when it stops, when you don’t retire on your own terms, it’s difficult.
“I’d been playing since the age of seven, first team since I was 16. I didn’t know what to do.”
Long attempted suicide through an overdose and 10 years on contrasts the mental health support available, through organisations like State of Mind and Rugby League Cares, with the absence of help he says he had.
“Nowadays lads going through a bad time are speaking up, player welfare is 100 per cent better,” he says. “Back when I played no-one spoke up because ‘you’re showing weakness aren’t you, mate’.
“Mental health was a taboo subject. If I’d spoke up back then people would have laughed at me. ‘What’s this dude going on about?’
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“The sense was we’re in a warrior-type sport and you’re not supposed to show weakness. So when you went through a bad time it was like, ’we don’t talk do we, we’re men’.
“People only see you on the field. ‘He’s hard, he’s played the game, he’s had a good career. What’s up with him?’ Inside, you’re quite fragile.”
Long would never have wished it this way but the tragic deaths of Terry Newton and, later, Rob Burrow brought perspective to his own issues.
“Terry, great bloke, tough as nails, won Grand Finals, played for his country, killed himself,” Long says. “That was a massive wake-up call for me.
“Rob, absolute gem of a bloke. For him to keep battling the way he did was a lesson to us all. It opened my eyes to live every day as it comes as you don’t know how long you’ve got left on this planet.”
And so it is that after 12 years’ experience in assistant positions, Long is throwing himself into his leadership role at Oldham, recruiting hard in preparation for the Championship and the hope it will one day lead him to England or, at least, to Oldham taking on St Helens in Super League.
“That would be class,” he smiles. “But we’re a little way off Saints at the moment if we’re being honest. The Championship is a different beast altogether from League 1. Anyone can beat anyone on the day. It’s more of a mindset thing.
“You’ve got to go into each game prepared, not dipping your toe in the water. Take it easy and you get punched in the face.”
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