The former England international started on the left wing for Oxford Harlequins in their 33-15 Oxfordshire County Cup win against Witney.
Varndell is a player-coach at the Regional 1 South Central club and they have a close alliance with Oxford Brookes University, where he is head of rugby alongside his other role as a rugby agent.
“If you’d have asked me two years ago would I go into coaching, I’d have said, ‘not a chance’. But I have really, really enjoyed it,” the two-time Premiership champion with Leicester said.
“I’ve worked for a sports agency since just before Covid, and that’s great, I enjoy that, the mentoring aspect of it and everything else. But I was missing being on the pitch and the interaction with players because I’d done it for so long, and this opportunity came up to work with Oxford Harlequins at National 3 level but also head up the rugby at Oxford Brookes, and we’ve had quite a successful season.
“I have been given a new lease of life; there’s not the pressure of the performance every single week or being ripped to shreds in analysis on a Monday. I am back on the pitch for the reasons I started playing it when I was nine years old – because I want to, because it’s not a job and all about collecting a pay cheque. It’s fun.
“I’ve pulled the boots on a couple of times this season, which I wasn’t going to but you get that hunger back and you think, ‘you know what, I’ll have a run out’,” he added.
This story is from the April 16, 2023 edition of The Rugby Paper.
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This story is from the April 16, 2023 edition of The Rugby Paper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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