Leicester Tigers and Norfolk: Rugby union's unlikely long-distance alliance
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Leicester trio Jack van Poortvliet, Freddie Steward and Ben Youngs (left to right) all hail from Norfolk and are England regulars
"In Norfolk, it's in our blood. We are Leicester Tigers through and through."
You don't hear that kind of sentiment, shared by Simon, a Tigers' fan who lives in Norfolk, very often. It's rare to find a community who, almost universally, support a team that play a three-hour drive and 110 miles away.
He has come along to a Leicester open training session at Gresham's School in Holt, joined by his wife and two daughters. They travel to see the team for every home game, and are not alone.
Hundreds more fans have come along to see their team train in this small town near the north Norfolk coast. One tells me the area is a "home from home for Leicester".
The county brings hundreds of supporters to each game, but has also produced some of Tigers' best players.
Freddie Steward and Ben Youngs are both from the county, came through the Leicester academy and are heading to the Rugby World Cup. Jack van Poortvliet, another Norfolk native, would have joined them but for an untimely injury.
Ben's brother Tom also became an England player and British and Irish Lion, and players like Harry Simmons, Calum Green and Charlie Clare have played key roles in Leicester's revival.
When did this unlikely alliance begin?
In the Premiership, each team has a so-called 'catchment area' to find talent and bring players through their academy.
Tigers recruit from Leicestershire and Rutland, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire - counties that are geographically close - and then, surprisingly, Norfolk.
Hundreds of fans came to Gresham's School to watch Leicester at an open training session
The areas were largely decided when the game turned professional in the mid-1990s. Why Norfolk was paired with Leicester - more than 100 miles away on the A47 - nobody seems to know.
The county is closer to the home grounds of their Premiership rivals Northampton or Saracens, and very few other clubs are that far away from part of their catchment area.
Tigers' general manager Richard Wilks says it creates a "huge logistical challenge" for the club, local schools, parents and players themselves, who have to regularly make the three-hour trip through their teens.
"We managed to organise a minibus, about six to eight [Tigers academy] players," recalls Van Poortvliet, who started at North Walsham Rugby Club when he was five and is now an England scrum-half.
"We'd be getting up at six in the morning and we would go to training. Then train until three in the afternoon and then get back at seven in the evening. Doing that three days a week was tough and draining, but we loved it."
'A hidden gem'
As Wilkes points out, "the juice is worth the squeeze", because so many good players seem to come from the area.
Nick Youngs - who introduces himself as "a farmer from Norfolk", is in fact a little more than that.
He played for Leicester and England in the 1980s, and is the father of Tigers, England and Lions brothers Ben and Tom, the latter now retired.
"Norfolk has always produced great rugby players. We are out on the lurch, and have been an untapped area. It's a bit of a hidden gem."
Many praise the club system in the area. Clubs like National League Two side North Walsham, Holt and Norwich - to name a few - have a long history of developing excellent players.
A mural of Leicester and England scrum-half Ben Youngs has been painted outside Holt RFC, where he and brother Tom started out
On the side of Holt Rugby Club is a mural of the most-capped Englishman, Ben Youngs. As the club's chairman Rob Hughes points out, many more players have come from here to play professionally, including current England full-back Steward and fellow Tigers Simmons and Clare.
"We are not frightened of competition here, with a structure that we are very happy to back them with," says Hughes.
Clare adds: "There's rivalries between all the clubs, and it's such a competitive area.
"The support's really good too, with a lot of people behind clubs like North Walsham, Holt and Norwich. It's a pleasure to go back to these places, the atmosphere and environment is always so great."
Wilks also highlights the area's "really good schools - well resourced and well coached."
'Maybe it's the soil?'
Private schools like Gresham's, Langley and Norwich - again, to name a few - have superb facilities and dedicated sporting staff, designed to create the next superstar in many sports.
"We've got everything you need here now," says Ben Pienaar, who grew up in Norfolk before playing for Leicester for seven years, and now leads the rugby programme at Gresham's.
"We've worked hard on getting a new gym, we have great pitches, and the coaching staff put in all the effort to improve the rugby. Why wouldn't you want to send your kid here to improve?"
But many we spoke to mentioned the phrase "farmers' sons", as if this is such a rich area for rugby talent because of the genes, or as hooker Clare suggested: "maybe it's the soil?".
That is impossible to prove, of course, but might speak to other factors that create an environment conducive to building talent.
Clare (left) and Simmons (right) were raised in Norfolk before coming through the Leicester academy
"The boys here perhaps have a different way of living," says James Knight, who is head of sport performance at Gresham's, leads the Tigers pathway in Norfolk and was previously director of rugby at North Walsham.
"Rugby is everything, and they don't have distractions in quite the same way. It's a rural area, and rugby is often a more rural game."
Wilks also believes the area's relative remoteness has another benefit: "That long drive will build resilience. It teaches those lads what it means to succeed."
The partnership does not just extend one way, of course.
'Part of Norfolk culture'
Leicester Tigers has a renowned academy that has brought great players through for generations. Their resurgence under former head coach Steve Borthwick was, in no small part, due to the impact of recent graduates like Steward, Van Poortvliet, George Martin and Ollie Chessum.
The academy works hard to find talent across its catchment area to create rugby-loving children. They start with kids camps in the summer holidays before the serious stuff starts.
"I remember doing Tigers mini-camps in Norfolk from the age of six to 13 and I absolutely loved them," adds Van Poortvliet.
"It's a real credit to the academy. They teach you to have a real love for rugby and for the club."
"The Tigers are very good at community outreach," says Holt RFC chairman Hughes. "That's aspirational for lads to get involved with."
"They have got a good brand. They are nice people, and they help us when they can even though we are 100 miles away.
"Local success has bred this. The boys see them and think 'this is real, he's just like me, I can be like him'."
The steady stream of local players making the grade has also created a real bond between Leicester and Norfolk, and not just by shipping players west to the Tigers academy.
There is, as another fan said at the training session, "a part of Leicester in Norfolk". Such is the area's influence on Tigers that Hanro Liebenberg, the club's South African captain, now supports Norwich City.
"For years and years now people have come through, and it has become part of Norfolk culture", says Knight. "You don't support anyone else when you live in Norfolk."