Northampton Saints Academy Coach Charlie Reed has settled into life at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens and is looking forward to the resumption of the Premiership’s Under-18 Academy League this weekend.
Reed took over the Club’s Under-18s set-up in October, filling the gap left by Will Parkin’s move into England’s pathway set-up.
With Parkin notching up a decade coaching the men in Black, Green and Gold’s young guns, Reed had big shoes to fill, but the young coach admits making himself at home in Northampton’s flourishing Academy set-up has been made easy by the quality of coaches around him.
“I absolutely love it here,” he said. “The best thing so far is the access that I get as an Academy Coach, and having great alignment with the senior coaches. They give me the opportunity to learn off them, and they give me an insight of what they want the Academy and its players to look like.
“Within this environment, I will only keep getting better as a coach, and that then allows players to get better. I feel very privileged with the position that I am in, and everyone in this environment has been extremely welcoming and focused on getting me into the swing of things.”
Charlie Reed
Reed played for several clubs during his playing career, including Loughborough Students, Bedford Blues, and Bury St Edmunds – winning the National 2 East’s Fullback of the Season award for the latter as recently as last season.
He combined his rugby with three years of coaching at Ipswich School and Colchester RFC, which paved the way for a move to Northampton to mentor Saints’ brightest young prospects.
He said: “I always played rugby since I was very young, and it was mainly when the pandemic hit that I got into the coaching side of the game.
“Through that period, I was playing rugby for Bedford Blues, and then from there – thanks to a link with Jacob Ford who was my coach when I was playing at Loughborough – a coaching opportunity presented itself at Ipswich School.
“I was at Ipswich for three years and learnt a lot, and then started coaching the Under-16s at Colchester. Will Parkin allowed me to shadow him here as much as I wanted to, which made my transition to Saints so straightforward.
“I learnt off him all the time, and when he came back from England camps, he was more than happy to share his ideas and thoughts on what he was doing. I wouldn’t be in this position if he didn’t allow me to do that.
“For the Academy games in the summer, we all just wanted to send him off on a high note, as it was his last couple of games in charge of the Under-18s.”
Reed’s tenure as Head Coach of the Club’s Junior Academy got off to a flying start, as seven young Saints were called into England’s Under-18s squad for the recent regional camp programme.
Ben Agbenu, Robert Gaffan, Billy Pasco, Sonny Tonga’uiha, Rafe Witheat, Digby Eliot and Jonny Weimann all took part across two camps at St. George’s Park and Bisham Abbey in November and December – and Reed has been impressed with the starlets’ work ethic so far.
“It’s a massive credit to the players,” he said. “We only see them once or twice a week, so for them to get a call up to the England squad is testament to what they have been doing at their schools, and to what they do off the pitch in terms of analysis, and getting in the gym, always being ready for that call-up.
“I’m immensely proud of them. At the end of the day, we can only have a certain amount of input, and the rest has got to come from them."
Charlie Reed
“It shines a great light on the Academy, but I’m prouder of the lads, and how accountable they are for their performances.”
Reed must make the transition from player to full-time coach quickly, with Saints Under-18s’ fixtures in the Academy League now coming thick and fast.
Northampton have reached the final of the competition two years running, and after thumping opening wins over Leicester Tigers (75-7) and Yorkshire (40-21), they face testing trips to Sale Sharks, Midlands West, and Midlands Central in January, before returning home to take on Newcastle Falcons in their final fixture of the regular season.
Another shot at the Academy League title will of course be a goal for Reed and his young group of players, but the coach insists that at this stage of their careers, the main focus has to be on improving as players first and foremost.
He added: “When I started coaching, I was also playing at the same time, and I found that I was speaking to players like a player would, rather than as a coach. That kind of wording and knowledge that you’re trying to feed down doesn’t necessarily resonate that way.
“So, for me, it has been about adjusting and learning how, as a coach, I can get the best out of a group of players. Through that, the messages were a lot simpler, which created a lot more clarity. It also gave boys the ability to make mistakes and learn.
“Sometimes as a player going into coaching, you think that lads already know the answers, so I am learning as a coach to allow boys to develop in the way that they should.”
Saints Under-18s Academy League schedule:
- Sunday 7 January: Sale Sharks vs Northampton Saints (Kick-off: 1pm) – Heywood Road
- Saturday 13 January: Midlands West vs Northampton Saints (Kick-off: 2pm) – Stourport High School
- Saturday 20 January: Midlands Central vs Northampton Saints (Kick-off: 2pm) – Aylesbury RFC
- Saturday 10 February: Northampton Saints vs Newcastle Falcons (Kick-off: 4.30pm) – cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens
- Sunday 18 February: Finals Day – Kingsholm Stadium
