Will Hurrell targets Premiership return as skills coach

Will Hurrell has set his sights on one day returning to the Premiership as a head coach, as his recovery continues apace from a stroke in January which ended his playing career.

Hurrell was two weeks shy of his 30th birthday when he caught his head on the wrong side of a tackle playing for Bristol against Leicester at Welford Road. The impact compressed his brain to the back of his skull, causing the stroke.

Eight months after his life-altering  injury – which initially left him unable to speak properly – Hurrell is planning the next phase of his life.

The former centre – known for his super-charged carrying game – is revelling in being able to “hammer” the gym and is close to completing a physical training qualification.

But it is in coaching where he feels his professional future lies.

“I’m currently waiting to hear back on a couple of things at a Championship level,” Hurrell told TRP. “The jobs I’ve applied for have been as a skills coach, backs coach and a transition coach. I’m dead comfortable in all of those.

“The goal is getting into the Premiership as a backs coach, learn about the game from the forwards perspective and go into a head coach role down the line. That’s the ambition.”

Ambition is what fuelled Hurrell’s climb through the leagues as a player. In 2013, he was playing in National Two North alongside his brother, Rob, at Stourbridge. Over the next three seasons he rose through   National One and the Championship to sign for Bristol in 2016, finding himself in the starting line-up alongside Gavin Henson in front of 70,000 people at Twickenham.

“That match versus Harlequins was my first game for Bristol and I was rooming with Gav as well,” Hurrell recalls. “I had been at Doncaster, Coventry, and Stourbridge and all of a sudden I was playing 12 and Gavin was 13. I thought ‘Jeez, this is awesome, this is what I’ve been working for.’

But Hurrell soon realised that to stay in the first team, he would need to invigorate his skillset.

He said: “I had to learn to pass from scratch at Bristol. I did one hundred push passes a day. Then when Pat (Lam) came in as DoR he said my skills were nowhere near good enough for a centre and I said ‘that’s because I’m used to crashing into people!’

“I worked on my skills every day at Bristol and they became a real positive in my game.”

For this reason Hurrell sees a skills role as a natural first step into coaching. He added: “I still want to travel and experience different things so I’ve been applying for everything, including MLR, and I’m trying to connect with people in Japan.

“I had this idea I would end my playing career in Japan so I started learning Japanese a while back. I’m really enjoying life at the moment and I’m open to all options.”

JACK ZORAB