Gareth Pratt appointed to take Great Britain Police Rugby League Team on tour to Canada

Gareth Pratt with the Challenge Cup

Gareth Pratt, a rugby league coach who lives in Littleborough, has been appointed Head Coach of Great Britain Police Rugby League team.

Gareth, who played his junior rugby at Mayfield ARLFC, played professional for Leigh, Rochdale Hornets, Dewsbury, Doncaster and Barrow before beginning his coaching career with the Mayfield Mustangs junior teams.

He then coached the north west regional teams and national teams and was selected to coach England U16s schools team, which included current local Rochdale Hornets professional player Michael Ratu and Super League stars such as Sam Burgess, Joe Westerman, Michael Cooper, Scott Moore and Ben Harrison.

After three years in this role he was asked to coach the England student team and was head coach for five years, during which time they won three home nation titles and reached the final of the Student World Cup against Australia. Gareth was also appointed assistant coach of Great Britain student team for a tour to South Africa.

In addition to coaching the student teams, he coached U21s teams at Halifax and St Helen's.

GB Police RL team at Mayfield ARLFC - Gareth Pratt far right

Gareth is currently preparing with the Great Britain Police Rugby League Team for a tour in Canada later this year, where they will be playing in a tri-nations competition against the Canadians and the New Zealand Police team.

His first game in charge of the team was a loss in the Challenge Cup competition against the London based Kiwi team - Wests Warriors. Gareth said: "Despite losing there were some very positive developments which came from the game and it gave me a better understanding of what standard they are playing at and what we need to be aiming for."

He added: This is a very challenging role for me due to the players working patterns and career commitments within the police force, which causes inconsistency and difficulties training together as a squad on a regular basis, but the players give up their time on a voluntary basis to train and hopefully get selected to represent their country playing for the GB Police team."

Gareth has based recent training days at Mayfield ARLFC in Rochdale, which was his old amateur club before he turned professional.

He says the chairman at Mayfield, Simon Howe, and other people at Mayfield, have been "tremendously helpful" by providing "fantastic training facilities and hospitality" for their training sessions for which he is "extremely grateful".

During the first couple of months, Gareth has been working to increase the participation, fitness levels and professionalism of the police officer players, he has also been chasing up as many quality players as possible from the different regions around the country to add to his squad. He has had players come into the squad from North Wales, London, Lancashire and Yorkshire regions recently.

GB Police RL - fitness testing at Mayfield Sports Centre

The GB Police team have a game on Sunday 7 May at Batley Stadium (kick off at 12 noon) as a curtain raiser to Batley versus Hull KR game.

The main sponsor of the team is Kings Security, but they are currently on the look out for other individual sponsorship for the players and staff, which would help in providing the best possible experience for the developing squad during this year’s fixtures against GB Teachers, The Royal Navy, The Prison Service, The Army and for the tour to Canada.

Gareth said: "We would welcome any support from local businesses to help sponsor the team this year."

To contact Gareth call: 07885 099956.