Chris Harris & OURFC Lions

With the 2025 Lions squad named in the last few weeks and the tour fast approaching, I took the opportunity to get some inside information from 2021 British Lion and 2025 Men*s Blues Coach, Chris Harris (#844). General Manager, Ian Kench, also recently met with Michael Foord from Howden to receive OURFC’s Lions Origins Plaque, with the names and Lions number of the 41 Dark Blues who went on to wear the red shirt, evidence of the long-standing historical links between the two historic teams. See the full list of Lions - and all Blues with international honours - here.

Harris - or Charris as he’s fondly known by teammates and OURFC players– will be moving from Gloucester to Bath for the upcoming season. Though he has now clocked in at over 100 appearances for Gloucester, he came to rugby relatively late at eleven years old. His first introduction was going to watch Sale Sharks play a French team, a day out with his stepdad who had always been a big Sale fan. He remembers a big fight breaking out in front of him and loving the atmosphere, and went home to join local side, Carlisle RFC. There wasn’t much rugby played at his school - where everyone else seemed more focused on football - but Charris soon settled into the club, pretty quickly becoming far more successful than he'd ever been on the football field.

He went on to study Architectural Technology at Northumbria University, though only played there for his first term before going back to Carlisle where he felt more at home, adding that the extra pocket (or beer) money didn’t hurt. In his second year, he was loaned to Tynedale, a slightly more convenient club which was playing a step above in National One and had some Newcastle Falcons on loan. With the Falcons coaching team keeping an eye on their performance, he was picked up by the Falcons academy, where he played for his final two years at university. After graduating, he signed full-time at Newcastle and continued progressing from there until he was picked up by the Scottish national team. 

Coming from Northumberland myself, I know that it does just about remain the England side of the border and ask him how he found his way into the Scottish camp. He tells me about his Scottish grandmother and how Gregor Townsend and others in the national team set up keep an eye on eligibility of players and approached him in the summer of 2016. “I would have been crazy to say no”, he says of the offer, and joined his first international camp the next year before being selected for the Autumn Series. His debut saw him coming off the bench to play against Samoa before his first start against Wales in the 2018 Six Nations. He went on to become a more regular fixture for the summer tour that year as well as the Six Nations and World Cup in 2019. 

Charris describes himself as a “bag of nerves” for his debut, trying to take it all in while staying calm, particularly for coming off the bench. "Walking in never gets old" is his mantra: arriving on the bus at Murrayfield and driving through crowds of fans before heading out into them and being led into the changing rooms by bagpipes - the hairs stand up on the back of his neck every time. The best moment of his rugby career, however, has to be the Lions announcement in 2021. He remembers being both shocked and buzzing when he was named for the second test, but nothing compares to the adrenaline of hearing his name that first time, finding out at the same time as everyone else that he would be going to South Africa. 

The actual tour was, as everything in the early 2020s, a unique experience due to lockdowns. Despite hearing so many stories about the adventures on previous tours, he spent most of the trip in the hotel - outside of training and games of course. He comments that it’s only really looking back he wishes they’d been able to do more; at the time, he was well-used to quarantines. He remembers playing a lot of golf with the team and confesses he was terrible himself but impressed with the performance from the Irish lads – though the Welsh boys seemed to be more on his level.  

Understandably, he was curious about mixing international teams but found that in the end, it was like any other rugby team: a fun group of players who are all pretty similar people. He talks about one of the first speeches Head Coach Warren Gatland had given, telling the players that he’d picked not only the best players, but also who he thought were good men and would create a good atmosphere in such an intense environment. Charris agrees with this description of the squad, commenting that when everyone is good value, team dynamics are easy. When I ask him about this year’s selection, he says it seems to be a similar group of decent blokes and is clearly excited to experience it again from the outside and see who gets those first test shirts. 

I can’t resist asking the most obvious follow up question about whether he has any advice to pass on and he takes it literally, repeating the advice he was given himself: being named in the Lions squad may the best moment of your career but don’t rest there. He reiterates what an honour it was to be named in the initial squad but encourages the players (who are almost certainly reading this article) that they were named because they are good enough to be playing in a test match – and should be fighting for it. 

Coaching for the Dark Blues is of course the next logical step, the only possible improvement on playing for the British Lions, and we talk about how he got involved. Ex-Blue, Dom Waldouck (#1231), is the defence coach at Gloucester, and remains closely linked with OURFC. When talking to Dom about moving into coaching, he mentioned there was an opening at Oxford to work with another Gloucester player and Blues coach, Mark Atkinson, and after a conversation with Kenchy, the rest is history. 

Finally, we talk about how much he loves the way you can really feel the history at OURFC, especially in the pavilion with all the memorabilia, as well as in the stands and on the grass pitch. Despite the intimidating history of the club (including 41 British Lions), it feels like a community in the same way that local clubs did for Charris when he was younger. He adds that this clearly puts players at the centre of everything happening in the club and makes them very close as a result, obviously spending lots of time together outside and around training as well as at Iffley Road. 

Describing the players themselves, he says he just can’t explain how keen they are to learn, always asking questions. He enjoys that he is challenged as much as they are, with constant questions as they quiz his drills and his knowledge to understand the game more rather than just showing up and doing what he says. He’s proud of the way the team aims high, always searching to improve and says it was a pretty cool year for a first proper coaching gig - it can't have gone that bad as he will be back next year!