Dom Barrow's return

[fivepointer]

Good article with some interesting observations from the excellent Charlie Morgan.

It is almost 10.30pm on a chilly Tuesday night and The Stoop’s floodlights have just turned off, plunging the pitch into darkness. Dom Barrow barely seems to notice. His enthusiasm cannot be dimmed by an unglamorous setting.

Having declined the opportunity to fetch extra layers, Barrow is still in his playing kit. And yet, following his 80-minute stint for Sale Sharks in an entertaining 34-29 Premiership Cup win over hosts Harlequins, the lock looks exactly like a man with a renewed zest for life.

Well he might. After representing Leeds, Newcastle Falcons, Leicester Tigers, La Rochelle and Northampton Saints, Barrow retired from professional rugby union in 2020 at the age of 26. He had turned down a lucrative offer from Toshiba Brave Lupus in Japan and wanted to focus on business endeavours as the managing director of Pure-EV, a company specialising in installing charging points for electric cars.

Prior to that, way back in 2013, Barrow had been a team-mate of Luke Cowan Dickie, Henry Slade, Jack Nowell and Anthony Watson in the first England Under-20 side to win the Junior World Championship. Four years later, he had spoken to senior coaches and was set on touring Argentina, only to be omitted from the squad.

Now, via a six-week trial with Sale that yielded a contract, there is a route back towards winning that first cap. Refreshingly and unapologetically, Barrow is aiming high without losing sight of more immediate steps that will get him there.

“I feel it’s almost a defence mechanism to go: ‘We’ll see what happens’,” says the 6ft 7in Yorkshireman of his Test aspirations. “I want to get there. I’d played in the same team as 19 of the England 23 in the World Cup final, so I have that experience.

“I spoke to Al [Sanderson, the Sale director of rugby] a few weeks ago. I said I’d got through the first stage, completing the trial earning the contract. As a DoR, he wouldn’t want me to just sit back and earn money, but I hope it didn’t come across the wrong way when said I wanted to change the rhetoric from being the trialist that is now a Sale Sharks player to being the guy that was the marquee player at Northampton Saints and a future England international.

“I feel like I have the ability to do that. Equally, the mentality shift is that, having gone through an age-group system and played with all these boys that are playing [for England], I always felt that it would just happen. There was a big realisation, stepping away from the game, that it was me that had to make it happen.

“There’s no entitlement. No one is going to give it to you. You’ve got to go and excel at Premiership level. You’ve got to be the hardest worker, the best trainer, do more than is expected in a domestic environment in order to achieve that. It’s not enough to follow protocol and hold your own in the Premiership and expect it to happen.

“I’m really aware of the challenge. And it may or may not happen. I’ve got to work incredibly hard. At the same time, I don’t understand why anyone would say otherwise, to be honest.”

The concept of entitlement surfaces more than once in this pitch-side conversation. Barrow graduated from the Leeds Carnegie academy into a bubble. Despite hopping between clubs, he was rarely far away from first-teams and has featured in over 60 Premiership games. It was difficult not grow comfortable.

“There’s the obvious stuff,” Barrow explains. “Things are on a plate for you. At a club your kit is washed and the chefs are preparing your food. You come off the grass and the hot and cold baths are ready. The sauna is on. I hear myself now and I sound so entitled. I’m a working-class northern lad and I hate hearing myself say that.

“But when that’s all you’ve known and you’ve been in that environment for so many years, it’s easy to take those things for granted.”

Although he retains a significant role with Pure-EV, Barrow concedes that he “really struggled” during his sabbatical without the “brotherhood” of a team setting. He missed being surrounded by ambitious individuals and began to step up his fitness training last September, with solo sessions at his local recreation ground in Burley in Wharfdale.

“I had splinters in my hands from the down-and-ups at one point,” Barrow admits, grinning. “Then I realised that I needed to communicate while running, so I got a few strange looks running up and down in the park nominating and shouting and side-stepping, all that carry-on.”

Sanderson, a similarly cerebral character, recently told RugbyPass that he could not believe his luck when Barrow called around Christmas time. “Second-rows of his size and calibre are as rare as teddy bear s---,” said the Sale boss of Barrow, depicting the landscape of tight-five forwards in his inimitable style. Sanderson tabled a contract long before the scheduled trial period was up.

Sharks announced a permanent deal in mid-February, with Barrow coming off the bench against Northampton and Worcester that month. If there can be further evidence of his drive, it is that he is looking forward to a summer of graft when this campaign is over.

“I’m genuinely really looking forward to pre-season,” Barrow adds. “I’d always dreaded it before as I’m sure most of the boys do. It’s going to be tough and always is. But I know what to expect and you have to turn it around psychologically from ‘that’s scary and intimidating’ to ‘it’s f---ing brilliant, it’s exciting, it’s a challenge, how much can I get out of myself?’”

With scope to reflect, Barrow now wishes he had “shown more resilience” after his England setback in 2017. He has been able to ruminate on another question, too. Sanderson asks all newcomers to pinpoint their “X-factor” attributes.

Over three “hugely influential and beneficial” seasons with Leicester, Barrow remembers Richard Cockerill praising his reliability and consistency. At Sale, Barrow will target his defensive organisation, his carrying and line-out leadership. The last of these goals will be helped by the perspective of his glimpse of life outside of professional sport.

“I’ve heard lads complain about still being in the club, saying it’s been a long day when it’s half three and they’re sitting in the sauna,” Barrow says. “In the real world, I was leaving for the office at half five and having 13 or 14-hour days. All of a sudden, it’s not a chore spending a couple of hours going through defensive line-outs at the end of the day.”

Besides being struck by the passion of Sanderson and others in the “back office” at Sale, Barrow felt valued by little touches such as arriving for the first day of his trial to find initialled training kit laid out for him. His sights are set on repaying that faith. He wants to “tidy up the definition” of a worn-out cliché in the process.

“Everyone says ‘I want to be as good as I can be’ but what does it actually mean?” Barrow finishes. “People throw it around, go to training, go home and play the PlayStation. Then it doesn’t mean anything.

“I’ve thought a lot about it and, if I truly do that, then there are two things. One, I feel like I can gain satisfaction from knowing that I’ve put everything out there because I don’t feel like I have yet. Two, I do genuinely believe that if I’m able to unlock my true potential, then international honours are an absolute possibility.”

[Mellsblue]

I’m 14 years ‘retired’ from rugby and I still miss Tuesday and Thursday evening training sessions and Saturdays revolving around matches*. There is nothing you can do to fully replace it. I’ve tried full on weight training, tough mudder type events once a month and team sports where I’m unlikely to pick up yet another concussion but nothing replaces it.
Kudos to him for admitting his mistake and getting himself back in to shape for a Prem contract. I hope he goes well, and not just due to the fact that the EQ lock cupboard looks relatively bare at present.
*I’m also certain the long suffering Mrs Mellsblue misses the peace and quiet those hours brought her!

[Mikey Brown]

I'm not clear if he was being literal about being the marquee player at Saints? Was he really that highly rated when he retired? I remember being aware of him as a player, and that he was big, but not much about his actual quality as a player.

[FKAS]

I don't think he was being literal with the marquee player thing at Saints, more that he was a big signing for them that season and was probably on good but not top money.

At Tigers I found him a really frustrating player, he was big, mobile and physical but man was he stupid at times. So many dumb penalties given away and often to concede 3 points. If a bit of time away proves to have sharpened his thinking and his leadership he could be a really good player.

He left Tigers in a bit of a cloud with rumours of Tom Youngs sitting him down in a training ground punch up. No idea how true that was but there were some rumours of his having a somewhat emotional conversation with his agent in Oadby around the time. Fairly flimsy stuff but a poor spell at La Rochelle followed which started with a red card if I remember rightly and then he didn't go well at Saints. Perhaps he needed the time to get his head right and sort his priorities, as he says maybe he got a little used to being looked after every day. Be interesting to see how he goes at Sale as he has all the physical attributes to be a quality second row.

[twitchy]

I was looking at the 2013 u20 side dom was in. I recognised pretty much every one but googled Matt Hankin. A thoroughly depressing read.

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/former-s ... sher-case/

[Mikey Brown]

Depressing indeed. Poor guy.

I was a bit confused by this part, “‘The tap on the head he had received during the course of the game had been administered by Mr Barrington” as it sounds like he’d received a separate injury in the game causing another concussion, presumably from an opponent but I don’t know where this part fit in.

[Puja]

Depressing indeed. Poor guy.

I was a bit confused by this part, “‘The tap on the head he had received during the course of the game had been administered by Mr Barrington” as it sounds like he’d received a separate injury in the game causing another concussion, presumably from an opponent but I don’t know where this part fit in.

The party game with the fire extinguisher, not a rugby game.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Ah. Yeah I see.

Though the term “tap” does seem a bit jarring with the description of the results. Not sure if that’s trying to diminish Barrington’s actions as not that bad, or just an unfortunate accident, but you’d wonder in that case why the case was against him personally.