Sale Sharks benefitting from Yorkshire Carnegie’s knack for producing young talent

Yorkshire Carnegie may be a name of the past in rugby union circles but the club’s objective in developing young talent across the county continues to bear fruit.

Dan Lancaster – the son of former Carnegie and England head coach Stuart – is making his way at Premiership leaders Leicester Tigers, while earlier this week five players who either went through the Yorkshire academy or are from the county were named in Sale Sharks’ starting XV for their Premiership Cup game with Harlequins.

Carnegie academy graudates Dom Barrow, Joe Carpenter, Jack Metcalf and Ben Carlile were joined by Ilkley’s Matt Postlethwaite in representing a Sale team that also listed James Gulliver, the captain of Leeds Beckett University team, on the bench.

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For one of those Carnegie allumnus it has been a rapid rise. Metcalf, 20, was a footballer in his youth, good enough to be given the chance to develop in the academies of Barnsley, Doncaster Rovers and York City before deciding to give rugby union one more shot.

Making an impact: Jack Metcalf runs in a try for Sale Sharks in a Premiership Cup game against Newcastle earlier this season. (Picture: Tim Williams/Action Plus/Sale Sharks)Making an impact: Jack Metcalf runs in a try for Sale Sharks in a Premiership Cup game against Newcastle earlier this season. (Picture: Tim Williams/Action Plus/Sale Sharks)
Making an impact: Jack Metcalf runs in a try for Sale Sharks in a Premiership Cup game against Newcastle earlier this season. (Picture: Tim Williams/Action Plus/Sale Sharks)

“My dad has a rugby background so I’d always one day wanted to play at Headingley,” begins the centre/wing from Alwoodley in Leeds.

“I’d played rugby when I was four until about nine, but then chose to go with football.

“I came back to rugby union when I was at Ashville College in Harrogate and said to my dad, ‘let’s just give this one more shot’.”

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The skills Metcalf learned in football were transferrable: “kicking off both feet, vision,” he says. “But I had so much to learn from being out of the game for so long. I could always catch a pass, but it was the understanding the game, picking up new skills.”

Jack Metcalf in action for Sale Sharks (Picture: Tim Williams/Action Plus/Sale Sharks)Jack Metcalf in action for Sale Sharks (Picture: Tim Williams/Action Plus/Sale Sharks)
Jack Metcalf in action for Sale Sharks (Picture: Tim Williams/Action Plus/Sale Sharks)

He went to Bishop Burton College in Beverley at age 16 thinking this would be his last chance.

The fact they had a partnership with the Yorkshire Carnegie Academy would give him a foot in the door.

“My first year was a really big learning year, I said to myself any opportunity you get just take it,” he explained. “If you did well at college you’d get rewarded by getting training days at Yorkshire Carnegie academy which was really beneficial.

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“After that year I realised rugby is what I really wanted to do.

Jack Metcalf came through the Yorkshire Carnegie academy (Picture: Tim Williams/Action Plus/Sale Sharks)Jack Metcalf came through the Yorkshire Carnegie academy (Picture: Tim Williams/Action Plus/Sale Sharks)
Jack Metcalf came through the Yorkshire Carnegie academy (Picture: Tim Williams/Action Plus/Sale Sharks)

“I was fortunate to be invited to go to Leinster for five weeks with my best mate Dan Lancaster and I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity to train with the European champions. It left me thinking ‘if I can train with these boys I can train with anyone’. I took that back with me for my final year and had the best year I’ve ever had.”

By age 18 in the summer of 2019, Metcalf was ready to start a degree at Leeds Beckett University and an academy contract at Yorkshire Carnegie.

The club, though, was financially unstable and although Metcalf realised a dream by playing professional rugby at Headingley, within a year Covid had brought a premature end to the season and the club’s RFU licenced academy was disbanded.

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“It was tough,” he remembers. “A few of us were wondering what are we going to do now? What does our pathway look like with nothing in Yorkshire, no pathway. I didn’t want to stop playing.”

Metcalf cast the net to see if anyone could offer him a career lifeline, and it was Fergus Mulchrone – a former Rotherham Titans player who was now a coach at Sale – who stuck out his hand.

“He offered me a one-week trial in January 2020 and I kept going back for three months. Sale signed me in the summer for two years,” says Metcalf, who has played seven times this season.

“Looking back now if someone had said you’d have scored in Europe, scored in the Premiership Cup and been on the bench in the Premiership I’d have snapped their hands off,” he says.

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“It has been a mad five years. People say you’ve got to take every opportunity you get, and you do to some extent, but you’ve also got to make sacrifices along the way, and I have. I’m loving my time at Sale. I’m in a very privileged position and loving my rugby.

“My parents have been very supportive throughout everything I’ve done so far. I can only thank them for taking me everywhere when I was younger.

“And I’m so grateful to Carnegie for the opportunities and the help they gave me along the way.

“My dad always said to me keep ‘your mouth shut and crack on’, and that’s stuck with me.”

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