How Maliq Holden is helping transform Hull Ionians on and off the pitch

Maliq Holden may only by 29 but his rugby story has already taken him to a number of outposts.

His current stationing though, may be the making of this son of a military family.

For the Liverpudlian is overseeing the transformation of Hull Ionians, a fourth-tier operation that only survived relegation two years ago because of Jersey Reds’ collapse and the subsequent knock-on effect down the pyramid.

Now, in a division won by upwardly-mobile Yorkshire clubs like Rotherham Titans and Leeds Tykes the past two seasons, and currently led by Sheffield RUFC, Ionians sit fourth. A 29-0 win over city rivals Hull on the Saturday before Christmas was their fourth win in a row.

“The perfectionist in me thinks we should have won by 50 points and I was a bit disappointed we didn’t,” smiles Holden.

“But sometimes I need to check myself and remember that at the start of the season if you’d have told me we’d do the double over Hull and shut them out at their place, I’d have been delighted.

“I guess that’s the coach in me, wanting to get better every week.”

Despite being relatively young for a coach, Holden has always been building to this point.

He was born in Liverpool but moved to Cyprus before he was 10 when his father was stationed out there. They moved again to the Netherlands, which is hardly a rugby hotbed but where he first played the game in school.

When the family relocated to England his journey accelerated in the west country, taking in stops at Hartpury College, Bristol, Gloucester and Cornish Pirates.

In 2021 Holden, a full-back/centre, signed for Doncaster Knights.

He spent four years at Castle Park, playing nearly 100 games and steadily adding to his coaching knowledge base under Steve Boden, Joe Ford and Sir Ian McGeechan.

“I took a lot from those top coaches like Fordy, Geech and Bodes,” he says. “I worked with some really good coaches at Hartpury, Bristol and Cornish Pirates as well and the best I worked with were constantly evolving.

“They knew what they were good at and they knew who they were, they stayed authentic. They never tried to be a perfectionist.”

All the while his role at Hull Ionians was growing. Initially he was a backs coach, then last season he took on lead coaching duties, but because of his playing commitments with Doncaster, couldn’t be there for matchdays. Last season, injuries restricted his appearances and with money tight at Champ Rugby level, the terms he was offered for this season – one in which away from rugby he gets married – were not enough to sustain a living.

So he took the job of head of rugby at Ionians.

“The good thing I have with the age I am is that I’m not really afraid to think I’m not the smartest person in the room,” he says of his coaching style.

“If it’s medical and the physio has got advice, I’ll take it. If it’s a forwards coach and they think something needs saying, then I trust the people around me. I’m not trying to micromanage anyone.”

Weather permitting, Hull Ionians will host Macclesfield today, a side that sits second in National Two North. Refreshingly, Holden is not yet too entrenched in the coaching mentality to trot out the line that they approach this game as they would any other. He knows the importance of a game that could see them close the gap on second and third. “I said this to the guys at the start of the season, I think we can beat anyone in this league,” says Holden, who is still playing.

“We lost to Macclesfield by five points when we played them earlier in the season but I think we’ve improved massively since then. We pushed Sheffield pretty close at Abbeydale.

“But as a coach I can’t look further than the week ahead, because if do I disrespect the game. The one time we did that was against Sheffield Tigers and they shocked us.

“Yes I look at the table and want to win every game, but you’ve got to take care of everything in the week.”

Big-picture wise, Holden is contracted for two years and wants to help the Brantingham Park club grow, on and off the pitch.

“This year we want to be in that top five or six, we’ve got the squad to do that,” he adds.

“We’re trying to build off the pitch, make it a bigger hub than it already is. We’ve got to think about the next generation at Hull Ionians.”