By Mally (on 30/08/02)
August 30 2002

Last season a new name featured on the list of top try scorers, no surprise there, players have broken through in the past, but in finishing the season as the second highest try scorer in the Zurich Premiership Leeds Tykes’ Dan Scarbrough made the rugby world sit up and take note. Scoring so many tries whilst playing for the club, propping up the Premiership table, meant that Dan (or Scabs as he is known) went from being a virtually unknown to playing sevens for England. Had he not been let down by injury he would no doubt have featured in the England squad which toured Argentina this summer, all in all quite an eventful season.

Who is Dan Scarbrough?

Scabs is a local lad, who started playing rugby at his first school Bronte House under David Garner, aged 10 or 11, before that he played football and had trials with Bradford when he was 10. Maybe we should be thanking Bradford Bulls for keeping Dan interested in rugby, as Scabs sheepishly admits:

“When I was growing up I was always a big fan of the Bradford Bulls, I’m from Bradford…When I was younger I followed football a lot more… liked people like Gazza. People who played with flair…”

Luckily for Tykes fans rugby won out. At Bradford Grammar Dan played at scrum-half, then moved to fly-half, playing in that position for the Yorkshire U19 team. Dan eventually worked his way out ending up on the wing and at fullback, where (as he modestly puts it) his “pace came through a bit”.

Fireman Dan?

After completing his degree (in Manufacturing Management) Dan played for Wakefield before joining Tykes at the start of their first Premiership season. If things had turned out differently Scabs believes he’d probably be in the Armed Forces (now that would boost the British Army’s Sevens team!), or trying to do something with his degree, contemplating the alternatives Dan concluded:

“I’d never do a 9 to 5 job…. Always liked the idea of being a fireman…”

Last Season – The Best and the Worst Bits

For Dan the highlights of last season were the games against the all conquering Zurich & European Champions Leicester Tigers, with the 37-16 win over Leicester at Headingley being his best moment. Scoring against Tigers at home, and then away at Welford Road was something Dan “enjoyed a lot” unlike his worst moments of the 2001/02 season.

“The worst moment? … Towards the end of the season we’d built up the Harlequins and Bath games… they just didn’t happen for us. Didn’t have the spark when we got out on the pitch.”

Scarbrough has a strong competitive streak, as he obviously likes to win. Picking out his best non-Tykes moment of last season he dismisses his England A games:

“I can’t really say my England A performances because we lost them both. It was good playing out in Malaysia with the England Sevens. Otherwise it’s Tykes. Bath at the start of the season or as I said before the Leicester game.

The Headingley Experience

Headingley made a huge difference to the teams performance last season, acknowledging that the team had a poor away record last season, Dan puts the home performances down to pride and the team spirit at the club.

“I just think that everyone’s proud of where we come from, and the atmosphere we’ve got going at the club – that must mentally spur people on.”

Fans Support

Last season Tykes did not have the large numbers of supporters at games, unlike some of the other clubs, but the fans support does make a difference to how the players perform. At the end of last season Tykes fans tried to get a bit more organised, making an effort to stand together at away games, make themselves heard and give the team some support. The away game at Sale was one where they succeeded, as Dan remarks:

“I remember us having some supporters! Sale was really good. I really enjoyed Sale as a game, some games are really enjoyable and some are not at all, but Sale was fantastic.”

“Very rarely I hear much when I’m on the pitch for some reason. I’m so engrossed in the game, but when you do it really spurs you on, especially when you’re playing against big name players, for example Harlequins I remember that one, everyone was giving Luger a bit of grief & spurring me on.”

Other Teams

Flair players, like Gazza were Scab’s childhood sporting heroes. Scabs still admires such skill, naming Sale as the team which impressed him most last season.

“They’re kind of a Brazil side aren’t they? You score so many tries and we’ll score a couple more. They had a lot of tries scored against them, but they scored a stupid amount of tries.”

As Dan likes Sale’s style of play it comes as no surprise to hear the one player, past or present, he would like to play along side is Sale’s own Billy Whizz.

“It would have to be, although I don’t like to say it, Jason Robinson, you could run off him all day, pick up tries everywhere, he’d be a great player to play with and learn with.”

Maybe one day Mr Robinson will return to Leeds and Dan will get to play along side him in Tykes colours, but perhaps a more likely prospect is a Scarbrough – Robinson combination in the white of England.

New Contract

Despite approaches from many of the other Zurich Premiership clubs and much to the delight of Tykes fans Dan re-signed for Leeds before the end of last season. What fans did not know at the time of the initial announcement was how early on in the season this had occurred, some 4 months or so prior to the end of the season.

“I basically wanted to stay in Leeds, and I was very confident Leeds would stay up, at the time I thought we’re not going to go down. They (Tykes) offered me quite a good deal, obviously I tried to up it a bit so I held out for a short while. I signed early for two reasons, I thought we were going to stay up and Leeds were trying to sort things out for this season and wanted to know who was staying and who wasn’t. I just thought I could tell them early.”

The Coming Season

According to Scabs this season should hopefully differ quite a lot from last year, the team are more experienced and have been working together on the “killer instinct” to enable them to maintain their performance throughout the match.

“Last year we had a hell of a lot more to learn… although we’re learning all the time & we’re constantly improving. Last year was a big leap, most players had only played first division rugby, and this year everyone’s got at least a year’s Premiership experience. Plus the squad’s really been strengthened in the positions needed, all in all a more competitive and consistent force.”

Fullback or Winger?

The official site squad list originally had Scabs and Diego Albanese listed as fullbacks, though now both are listed as wingers, with no one player being designated as fullback it would appear that Phil Davies is keeping his options open. When asked which position he prefers, Dan is non-committal.

“I’m a bit in between at the minute. It depends which I play, when I get into playing winger I prefer winger, but when I play fullback for a while I prefer fullback.”

And just how does he see Diego Albanese as fullback?

“I think he’ll do well at fullback… he’s got a very good boot on him. Very good player.”

Predictions & Priorities

Looking over the opposition, Dan went with the majority of rugby pundits, a choice which he described as “quite boring”, and predicted that Leicester Tigers will win this years Premiership title. However he also tipped Northampton as “the team to watch this year”. And the Tykes? 8th or 9th was Dan’s verdict.

Helping Tykes to achieve such a finish is Scabs’ first priority this season, though he does have a more personal goal of making the world cup squad. Scabs would like to be described in his personal profile as “an exciting fullback or winger who likes to take risks”, something Clive Woodward has already noticed. Scarbrough can only build on what he achieved last season and hopefully come October 2003 we’ll see him in an England shirt alongside Jason Robinson.

A committed team player, with a decidedly competitive streak, one thing is certain he will be giving Tykes 110% this season and yes he’s still supports Bradford Bulls!

Interviewed 13/08/02 by Mally and Skibum