In January this year Jack Clement told Sport and Life how a cricket scholarship to Cheltenham College opened the door to a pro rugby career with Gloucester, why playing with flair is hard when the momentum is against you and the reason the cherry and whites watch videos of football legend Lampard.
Watch the full interview with Jack Clement below:
Picture the childhood of an elite sports professional. What do you see? Decades of passion, practice, striving and resilience? Tiger Woods perhaps personifies this stereotype – the 15-time major Champion was swinging clubs as soon as he could toddle.
But Gloucester Rugby player Jack Clement’s path to the top was a little different. He didn’t know much about rugby until trying the sport when he arrived at Cheltenham College as a 14 year-old.
He’d transferred from Bournside School after being offered a scholarship – for a completely different sport.
“So I was 14 and got a scholarship offered to me for cricket,” Clement told Sport and Life.
“So I went there basically to give it my best crack at hopefully making a career (in cricket). And it just so happened that when I was 16 I was playing rugby as a passion in the first team under Olly Morgan, who was an old Gloucester player and played for England, and he said ‘look you’re playing really well, I would like you to go for a trial at Gloucester Academy because I think you’ve got the potential to make a career out of it.’
An apprehensive start
“I was a bit reluctant at first because all my eggs were in the cricket basket and equally I was apprehensive about what the rugby environment and academy system looked like. But I just went for it and a summer later I got picked for the under 18 England tour after a few Gloucester Academy games.”
Clement combined his first love cricket and new found hobby rugby for a while but soon he had to pick one.
“I was playing county cricket and Gloucester Academy at the same time and it was dovetailing. But I had to make a decision when I was 17 and went for the rugby. I’m very glad I did because I’ve loved it the whole way. I still play cricket in the summer socially and absolutely love it.”
Clement contends that playing other sports before taking up rugby actually helped him become such an effective back row forward.
“I believe that a lot of my skills in rugby definitely come from a background in playing cricket and football. So I feel like in rugby I have a skillset where I can catch the ball in high ball situations or pass the ball because I’ve played football, moving zonally and played centre mid, for example. So I scan the game quite well. And I have the hand-eye coordination from cricket.”
It’s not just Clement who sees valuable lessons in other sports. He says the Gloucester players have been encouraged to study the awareness of elite footballers.
“One of our principles in defence at Gloucester we call ‘Frankie.’ Because Dom Waldouk, our defence coach showed us a clip a few years ago of Frankie Lampard playing for Chelsea. And there’s a clip where he’s in the middle of the park and he’s just constantly looking over his shoulder, looking over his shoulder, looking at who’s got the ball, but then equally looking at where the space is behind him.”
Directing focus
Lampard was associated with an iconic Chelsea team that was rugged but also played attractive football. And Gloucester Rugby has prided itself on putting on displays of running rugby in recent seasons. But with the results not going well when we spoke, Clement conceded losses makes it more difficult to play with flair.
“You definitely feel it when momentum’s on your side and you’re winning. You almost feel like you can’t do anything wrong. And then on the flip side of that is when you’re losing or when things are going against you, if there;’s a hostile crowd, it feels like your backs are against the wall… you have to focus two or three times harder to make it come off.
“If you work hard enough at something and you direct your focus towards something enough then at some point it will come good. And it’s all about when it comes good.”
No doubt Clement’s cleverness, skill and running power will help bring good times to Gloucester in the coming years. He’s still only 25, but has started taking financial exams so as to create a second career when his play days are done.
And while still young he admit to having nostalgia for his school days and the joy of playing cricket at the College.
“The backdrop is awesome and it’s iconic. Given that the (cricket) festival’s there, it’s a privilege to play there. When you leave school you think crikey, wow, what a privilege that was the whole time to play in those facilities.”
