What Dean Richards did next – ‘I’ve created a Tinder for rugby’
Ex-england and Lions No 8 has teamed up with son to give players below elite level a way to showcase their skills
Dean Richards is hungry – and you won’t like him when he is hungry. The hulking former No8 sits with a pint of Leicestershire’s local Tiger ale before deciding that enough is enough and, in returning without snacks from the bar, I had reneged on my duties as round-purchaser.
Richards disappears, returning moments later with his hands full of crisps and nuts. The lack of cheesy options leaves him disgruntled but he splits open one packet before piling the rest on top, creating a sort of pub-snack platter. One big heap, like a ruck from his playing days.
Is this the Richards version of Come Dine With Me? Hopefully not, but there is another modern phenomenon from which Richards has borrowed. The 60-year-old, alongside son William, 26, has created a website and app which he jokingly describes as the “sporting equivalent of Tinder”.
After leaving his role as director of rugby at Newcastle in 2022, his latest venture is The Players Platform, which allows players below the elite level to showcase their talents in a public forum, with the hope of attracting a playing opportunity elsewhere. That could be in a different county, country or continent. It might be for performance reasons or it might be for those who want to experience new horizons and cultures.
The website is live and the app – where profiles are scrolled through in a manner not too dissimilar from Tinder – is to be released imminently. It was the brainchild of William, one of Richards’s four children, but it has the fingerprints of the 54-cap England and British Lions No8 all over it.
“Players with any sort of standing within the game will have an agent, who will be able to push them around the world with their contacts,” Richards says. “But there
are so many out there who cannot touch base with people throughout the world, or even in Europe – even in another county. They don’t have the contacts or an agent or anything like that. It’s aimed at people just below elite level, those who would like to reach out to other parts of the world and experience cultures.
“William came through university and saw loads of kids who were either late developers or who wanted to travel the world using sport – and were never really given the opportunity because they
didn’t have the contacts. He thought it would be a good opportunity to develop an app and a website which gave these people the chance to promote themselves. When he explained it to me, I thought it was a f---ing good idea!”
For now, the venture centres around rugby and football but “in time will include sports like netball, cricket and hockey”. Despite the name, The Players Platform is not limited to players, but welcomes coaches, physiotherapists, analysts – anyone who fancies a change of
scenery in their sporting career. They sign up, create a profile and pay a modest subscription fee; clubs do the same and are able to search for positions that suit their needs.
“It’s not a one-stop shop in terms of trying to promote people who are late developers,”
Richards says. “It’s about giving everyone an opportunity to do what they want to do and to be what they want to be. If you want to travel the world, so be it. If you want to be a better player then it might give you the opportunity to play at a higher level.
“It might be that you want to play rugby in Australia. You fancy Sydney but you don’t know anyone. You come onto our website and send off messages to registered clubs and you can attach a highlights reel.
“There are eight million registered rugby players throughout the world. And not everyone is happy. There are so many people in Europe looking for opportunities abroad and there are so many people in South America.
“It won’t revolutionise rugby, but it will give people an opportunity to experience things they’ve never experienced before – and make things a little easier for them. Rugby is a global sport – it needs something like this.
“It’s all about connections, isn’t it? Life is about connections. If you were an 18-year-old, just finished school and a good sportsperson, and you want a gap year – why not? Why not try and work your way around the world playing rugby, for example? That’s what we’re about, opening up the world.
“We haven’t done it on a shoestring but it’s taken a little longer than expected because we wanted to get it right,” he says. “It is about getting out there – and we’re not going to rush it.
“The beauty of having someone involved who’s 26, a different generation, is that he understands these things far better than me. I have the contacts, a little bit of money stashed away and a little bit of knowledge about sport. But he’s making it happen. “And I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think it was a really good idea.” The pint is drunk, the pub snacks are no more; the arrival of The Players Platform app is imminent.