the last line seems to indicate he could be playing for us
David Clegg Continues His Tribute To Last Season’s U19s Senior Players, This Week With Cumbrian Prop Forward, Tom Horner
IMG_0883When you first meet Tom Horner you would not immediately consider him to be a rugby league prop forward, for he certainly is not the biggest of that breed of players. Not that that worries Tom himself, since he is a great advocate of the philosophy that if you are good enough you are big enough, and that is something he goes out to prove every game.
Born and bred in that hotbed of Cumbrian rugby league, Whitehaven, Tom first started playing as a five year old when he became involved with Arlecdon ARLFC, a village just a short journey away, and he continued to play with them until the age of ten, when the loss of a number of players led to the disbanding of his age group.
As a consequence of this he moved to the much bigger and more stable, Kells ARLFC, which was actually based in his home town, and he stayed with them through to the age of sixteen. His stand-out memory of his time there was in the U 14s side when they won the League Trophy, and the County Cup, and then at U16s level when they won the Cumberland Trophy, and once again the County Cup.
At the same time as this, Tom, as a secondary school pupil was, simultaneously, playing rugby union for his school side. Although he enjoyed this as a change, it was rugby league which was his major focus, having been brought up in it throughout his formative years in primary school.
Even at that early age, Tom had always played at prop, with only occasional forays in the second row, simply because he liked the position with the continual and considerable involvement it brings. He especially likes the tackling he has to do, and particularly relishes pulling down the opposition’s bigger prop forwards.
It was this ability to defend extremely well which was to lead to the next big step in his development, joining the then Salford City Reds. A contact of the club, in Cumbria, recommended Tom to our Player Performance Manager, Chris Coop, and so in 2011, at the age of sixteen, Tom was invited to come for trials, where he immediately felt welcome and settled.
For their part Head of Youth, Alan Hunte, and his coaching staff, were really impressed with his defensive qualities, which are the hardest thing of all to develop in players. Whilst certain aspects of his offensive play still needed to be worked upon, that was not the case with his tackling in which he showed an extremely fine technique and great contact with the shoulder.
His first season was in the scholarship side during the club’s final season at the Willows. He was involved in six matches, and looks back on that time with a great deal of satisfaction having performed well in all his games, and having greatly enjoyed the whole experience that went with it.
The biggest drawback to his time at Salford has been the travelling from West Cumbria down to Greater Manchester, but he insists that he soon got used to this, and it became much better with a small group of four of them sharing transport on their thrice weekly journeys south. Tom, himself, had to come directly from work for midweek training sessions, whilst matches were usually played at weekends.
As he moved through the Academy setup Tom had somewhat mixed experiences. Following a highly successful campaign in 2012, in which he was a regular in the U18s – and even featured at U20 level occasionally – 2013 was more than a little disappointing with two serious shoulder injuries and a broken leg laying him low for almost the whole of last season. Last season, saw something of an improvement in his fortunes, with his putting in some fine performances for much of the campaign, before yet further injury laid him low for the final run in.
Since the end of the season, I am pleased to report, that having been restored to full fitness, Tom is attracting some quite considerable interest from his home town club, and I am sure that everyone at Salford will wish him success with this.
