Serge Betsen on his London Scottish coaching role

PROFESSIONAL rugby is a serious business. Long days; intensive training programmes; meticulous planning.

It is tough to get used to, particularly when only months prior such a slick outfit was run through three night-sessions a week and was where part-timers had to split priorities with their day job.

At London Scottish, the decision was made in November to become a more adroit outfit, changing to a daily operation and taking on a new forwards coach, ex-Leicester Tiger and London Wasp James Buckland. His arrival was closely followed by those of auxiliary strength and conditioning and forwards consultants. Part-timers were bid farewell.

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At the same time, the club took in a defence coach; someone feared and revered, but someone just as frightened and excited by the changes in 
Richmond as the old-stagers are.

“I am not trying to be scary,” French legend Serge Betsen asserts of his coaching style, “but it is part of my personality.

“When you play at a high level, it is important to tell the kids what a fantastic opportunity they have to be paid for their passion. They have to give everything. So I want everyone to think that when they are on the grass they must give 100 per cent.

“Sometimes, yes, I can be scary, but the biggest challenge for me is to be a good coach and accept that not every player will be a Serge Betsen.”

When the 39-year-old talks about throwing everything at a task, you know it comes from someone who made pouncing out of corners routine. Much has been made of his childhood with him and his mother immigrating to Paris from Cameroon in 1983, but the thump-tackling flanker reflects more on the joy of the fight on the pitch. In Biarritz, where he lived for 17 years, he became notorious for his ability to kill play and 
familiarise ball carriers with the dirt. He won three Top 14 titles and a Heineken Cup runners-up medal while in the Basque 
country.

The former French captain also has a mystique about him, something the British have admired at since he first lined up in bleu. His finest hour came in 2002 when he haunted Jonny Wilkinson in the Stade de France, yanking his side towards a 20-15 victory and a Six Nations Grand Slam.

After all of that earnest toil, though, he can still be caught off guard. With a purr of laughter he says: “I am not really a funny person. “At Scottish, I will have the boys tell a joke at the end of every session” – sessions some Exiles players are at pains to point out can get rather dicey if they step out of Serge’s patterns – “the function of it being to get to know people and fit in with Scottish’s traditions.

“I face it like I face any problem. For example, when I first moved to London I thought I spoke English pretty well. After a few sessions trying to understand Shaun Edwards at Wasps, I decided to go back to college to learn. So at Scottish I joined up because I knew some people there from Wasps, but there are still challenges.

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“I wanted to get my Level Three coaching certificate and I needed a club to learn. I knew people at Scottish and, after talking with head coach Simon Amor, I felt it would work well if we had a meeting of minds. With others, like Kenny Logan, an ex-Wasp on the board, I thought it would be a good platform for me. I just want to continue learning as a coach.”

This learning process has worked so far for Scottish. Betsen has overseen improvements in defensive performances that have seen Moseley, Cornish Pirates and Doncaster beaten while the league’s juggernaut Newcastle Falcons were held to within a kick. They are now a mid-table team.

It goes without saying the 63-capped breakaway is not shy of meeting his problems head on.

After taking the bold step of uprooting his family and moving from the south of France in 2008, he was risking possible happiness.

He sold his spa in Biarritz. His wife gave up her job. His children left school. Things worked out. His son and daughter settled well in Ealing, and his wife works at a nursery. Of course, there are aspects of French life he misses, but having been dazzled by new techniques in sports science and the culture of elite performance in the UK, he vowed to pursue a coaching career in England. He wanted to reinvent himself and that meant distancing himself from France.

With only two contact days a week at Scottish, Betsen still finds time to represent his charity, the Serge Betsen Academy, across the globe: a children’s training weekend in Bordeaux one weekend, planning a trip to Africa the next. He feels he can help spread the gospel of a game that gave him so much.

“I truly believe power can emerge in Africa, with more rugby. Look at Kenya’s 7s. People get to see an incredible culture and new rugby. Year on year there is great development and it can only improve after the 2016 Olympics.”

So why do we see so few black head coaches now? “In Africa the problem is football. Rugby is a development sport that they must get used to. It needs to get bigger and bigger before people will give back. I was one of the first black captains of France, but rugby is not part of African culture and we are only starting the process of fighting football. Part of it comes down to the IRB and media involvement.”

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Heavily involving himself, and in mind of the long-game, this scowling sweetheart is determined to make change. If you are one of the Scottish defenders making a joke under duress, that can only be a good thing.