Joe Ford | Doncaster, his dad and Sir Ian McGeechan.
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With a dad who has coached Ireland and England across both codes, and now a director of rugby who is the most famous British and Irish Lions leader of them all, Joe Ford is not short of wise counsel to turn to as he embarks on his own journey as a head coach.
Wherever it takes him, however much he leans on that guidance, the 33-year-old former fly-half already knows the cornerstones of what will shape his path: playing attractive rugby and empowering his players.
Ford has been Doncaster Knights head coach since the summer but it is only the last three weeks that the job has taken on greater importance.
“I’ll be picking the team, running the training sessions, leading recruitment, and Geech will be here to help,” Ford tells The Yorkshire Post.
“He’s not come in to step on anyone’s toes, he has all this experience and just wants to share it and give help where he can.”
Mid-30s might seem young for a top job in rugby, no matter what title it is given, but Ford has been working towards a coaching career for a long time
Growing up in a house run by Mike Ford, the former rugby league player with Castleford and Wakefield among many others, Joe and his younger brother and future England international George knew nothing but the 13-man game.
When their Dad got a job on the Ireland union coaching staff, the brothers - sceptical at first - were suddenly put on a path that would define them.
“It was the best decision he could have made for me and George,” says Joe.
“He took us to Ireland, meeting the O’Garas and O’Driscolls of this world. Then you get playing and taken into England camps, and there’s nothing like that in league.”
Throughout a playing career that included three spells with Leeds Carnegie and stints at Northampton, Sale and Leicester, Ford coached amateur teams on the side.
When he hit 30, he turned down offers to play in France to take up a player-coaching role with Leeds Tykes. “What I learnt from that was how much I enjoyed the coaching side and the playing side a little less so,” he says.
In 2021 he joined Doncaster as backs coach and was elevated under Boden to head coach last off-season.
Through it all, his dad Mike remains a regular source of wisdom. “He always has the answer, which can be a little bit annoying,” laughs Ford, “or the right thing to say. I’m lucky I’m able to call on him whenever I want.”
All of it will contribute to the coach Ford will become. Two games into being the main man he has a win and a defeat.
“I cannot praise the lads enough, the energy they’ve brought, how they’ve got stuck into the games - they’ve made it pretty easy,” says Ford.
“I’m very much about empowering the players. I believe player-led teams are the strongest, so just trying to push them into doing more and more, which they have done.
“The more you can empower the players, get them to lead and then they’ll start putting the team first, then it will grow stronger and stronger. It’s a collaboration, we’re in this together, it’s not just the coach and us. We’re all together making the decisions, obviously the head coach has to have the final say, but if you do it the right way with good discussions then it tends to work out.”
Boden left Doncaster in part due to his frustration at the direction the Championship was going in. He believes with the RFU incrementally cutting funding from £600,000 per annum to £160,000 over the last few years, the second-tier’s product is not sustainable.
Ford’s verdict? “I do think there is a sustainable future but I do believe something needs to be resolved in terms of funding to make this league stronger so we’re keeping these players in the game longer.
“I think player welfare needs to be high up in talks. The funding is just not enough at the moment, and I’m not blaming the RFU, it’s just the way the game is at the minute.
“The RFU have to put the top of the game first, you can’t lose the Premiership because that is the foundation of everything.
“But hopefully something can be done that makes this league stronger and the league under that stronger, because it’s tough to see how it can carry on like this.”
The RFU and the Championship clubs are searching for a solution, talks having taken on a showdown nature.
No one yet has found the answer. What would Ford’s suggestion be?
“If they can restructure it, or whatever they’re going to do with this Premiership 2, maybe condense it a little bit and go two divisions of 10 and have a bigger National One,” he offers.
“That’s two strong divisions of 10, so 20 teams in the country who are funded maybe a little bit better and there’s relegation and promotion then I think it will go strength to strength.
“But there’s a lot of talks to be had. I’ll leave that to Steve (Lloyd - Doncaster’s co-owner and president) and Geech.”
Right now, Ford has enough on his plate.
He has already begun looking at recruitment – “we only have two players contracted for next season so when we nail down the retention and however that unfolds will determine what else we’re looking for”.
But for now the main priority is taking it game by game and over time integrating his style of rugby and empowerment vision.
“We’ve got seven games left, I just want them to go after every game, we’re not putting a target on it that we want to finish X, Y and Z,” says Ford.
“Just put everything into every game and see where it gets us and for the first two we have done that, even though we lost to Coventry I couldn’t have been prouder of the fight and what they put on the field.
“We struggled in a couple of areas technically which we need to touch up, but what I said to the players is so long as you bring that side that can’t be coached - the energy, the way they work off the ball - I’ll never have a go at you. The other stuff is on us as coaches, just as much as you.
“We’ve had two massive ticks so far and we go to London Scottish this weekend trying to get a third.”
Ford concludes: “These are exciting times at Doncaster. Since Emma White has come in as chief exec, in such a small amount of time we’ve seen the club grow massively.
“We’ve got to play our part on the pitch and play a brand of rugby that people want to come back and watch - and you need to win. But it’s important how you play, it drives the crowds in.”
