No academy contract. No overnight success. Just years of graft, a love for the game and a journey from grassroots rugby to Blackheath’s Champ side.
Professional rugby has its established pathways. Academies, age-grade internationals, elite schools and carefully mapped-out routes to the top. But not every player follows the script.
Archie Holland didn’t.
The Blackheath loosehead grew up in Bromley, came through Kent age-grade rugby, went to university at Nottingham Trent and eventually found his way into the Champ. Along the way, he’s dealt with setbacks, changed positions, won a university league title and built a life that extends well beyond the rugby pitch.
These days, he’s balancing Champ rugby with a full-time job as a PE teacher, coaching at Bromley and documenting his journey on Instagram through his Grassroots to Champ series.
It’s a lot to fit into one week.
I sat down with Archie to talk about how he got here, what it takes to play at this level and why his route into the Champ might be more relatable to young rugby players than they realise.
WHERE IT STARTED
Archie grew up “Bromley way”, and rugby came from his dad, who played and had him involved from the age of four. An older brother played too. Go back another generation and the sporting streak shows up again: his great-grandad was an army boxer.
From there it was Kent rugby, all the way through age grade and into the senior set-up. He was part of two squads that won at Twickenham. He played in one of the finals and missed the other because he was at a wedding, which is as good an excuse as any.
NO ACADEMY, NO COMPLAINTS
I asked whether he ever came through an academy and the answer is no. He was in the Saracens catchment area, picked up an injury in his first season, and by his own account they saw something that told them he wasn’t academy level. Fair enough, he thought. It meant taking the very long route to get where he is, and he’s made a video about it for his Grassroots to Champ series.
On the wider question of how players get into academies, his view is measured. A lot of the pathways run through big private schools and feeder schools. One of the lads he coaches, a promising nine, has just been picked up by one. That’s just how it works sometimes, Archie says. It isn’t bad, it’s just how it is. His younger brother was in the Saracens academy and stayed at his own school, alongside Zach Finch, who went on to Loughborough, England U20s and Saracens. So there’s more than one way through.
NOTTINGHAM TRENT: A WOBBLE, A POSITION CHANGE AND A LEAGUE TITLE
University was Nottingham Trent, and it didn’t start smoothly. In his first year he was in the twos, behind another hooker, and he wasn’t enjoying it. His housemates were all American footballers, and he came close to packing rugby in to play with them. They kept asking their coach to let him play running back or linebacker in the varsity game to “Just go hit things.” I’d have paid to watch.
He stuck with rugby. The club was relegated in his first year, and in his second he broke into the team and they won the league. Then Covid hit, the playoffs were cancelled, and they never got the promotion. They won the league and got nothing for it. Cruel.
He was a hooker through uni, until illness changed things. A throat infection left him unable to eat, and he dropped from 107kg to 90kg in two weeks. When he came back, his coach decided to try him at loosehead. Archie locked down the scrum, thought that with some decent size back on he could be useful there, and he’s been there ever since. That must have been some throat infection!
BLACKHEATH: EXPECTATIONS EXCEEDED
Archie’s route into Blackheath was helped along by a familiar face.
His brother was already at the club and put in a word, suggesting Archie was half decent and worth a look in the twos.
The original plan was fairly straightforward: bring him in, see how he got on and give him the opportunity to work towards the first team.
It didn’t quite work out that way.
Archie went straight into the ones, after a coach told him he’d exceeded expectations. What began as an opportunity to earn his place quickly became something much bigger.
Now in his fifth year at the club, Archie describes Blackheath as “the best pub team in the world”. I’ve been down there myself, and you can feel it’s a proper club with good people in it. This is Champ rugby, but the friendships, socials and sense of belonging remain a huge part of the experience.
That showed in the promotion match against London Scottish. Blackheath went in confident after a good season in National 1, while Scottish had had a poor one in the Champ. Archie spoke to their hooker afterwards, who told him how disruptive it is when players keep drifting in and out.
With their ties to Harlequins, Scottish could call on academy lads to help win matches. But cohesion beats a revolving door, and Blackheath were a settled group that had bought in.
When Archie talks about that game, though, it’s the supporters who stand out. Coming off the pitch and looking around at the crowd, he realised just how many people had turned up to be part of the occasion. It was one of the biggest crowds he’s played in front of, and a moment that has stayed with him.
For a player who has spent years working his way up through grassroots rugby, those moments matter. Getting to play Champ rugby is one thing. Doing it for a club where you feel part of something is another.
STEPPING UP TO THE CHAMP
So what’s the actual difference at this level? Speed, says Archie. Everyone has a good skillset, and the better the skills, the quicker the game. Turn the ball over and it’s on the other side of the pitch before you’ve drawn breath, and you’re playing catch-up.
At the rucks, he reckons legality goes out of the window at the higher levels, and he points out how few players you see on their feet at an international.
He’s not shy of contact himself. He has a highlight-reel tackle on a very large opposition number eight that did well on Instagram. “Just got right under him. See you later, pal.”
The scrum, though, is where he’s found his home, and it’s a long way from that hooker who was dropping weight at uni. He describes scrummaging as all about angles, and far more art than “bending over and pushing”. It helps that Blackheath’s scrum coach, Will Davis, spent ten years at Ealing and has become something of a mentor.
This season Archie has also been asked to cover tighthead, including on the bench for the opener at Nottingham, a game he’d had eyed up since the start of the year. If you’re being asked to cover both sides, I reckon you’re not bad at scrummaging. On the future of the scrum, he’s firm: take it out and you take away the big lads. Rugby is a game for every shape and size.
THE WEEK: TEACHER, COACH, PLAYER
Then there’s everything that surrounds the rugby, which is also rugby. Archie is a PE teacher at a school in Rochester and a coach at Bromley RFC. He teaches where he runs an under-18s side and a girls’ team, helps with the other age groups and coaches sevens in the second term. In the summer it’s athletics, where he helps out with everything but I asked him what his speciality was and unsurprisingly he throws shot. I reckon he’d be pretty good at throwing most heavy objects.
The week has a shape to it. Tuesdays and Thursdays he trains with Blackheath, and on Wednesdays he’s coaching at Bromley.
Saturdays depend on the fixture list. If Blackheath aren’t playing on the Saturday, he’s coaching Bromley’s match. If they have a home game, he does the school fixture in the morning and heads straight into the club game.
It’s tiring, he admits, but it’s something you’ve got to get through. It helps that he lives close to Blackheath, because some of his teammates have a long journey back into London after training.
GRASSROOTS TO CHAMP: SHOWING THE WORK BEHIND THE SHIRT
There’s another side to Archie’s rugby journey that is only just beginning.
After the Champ asked clubs about their players’ social media presence, Archie decided to stop thinking about creating content and actually give it a go. The idea had been in his head for months. Now, through his Grassroots to Champ series on Instagram, he’s documenting what the journey really looks like.
And that’s where I think it gets interesting.
In football, young players often grow up watching the journeys of academy prospects and future professionals. At Champ level, the picture can look rather different. Players have jobs, travel to training, coach others and squeeze their rugby around the rest of their lives.
Archie is showing exactly that. On top of the teaching, the coaching and the training, there’s the content to film, edit and post.
For his students, the whole thing has an added dimension. When they discovered he was putting videos online, he started hearing the whispers around school. As Archie puts it, there’s always a bit of “Oh, trouble.”
But there’s something valuable in that visibility. The boys he teaches and coaches can see someone they know playing Champ rugby.
They can see the hours that go into it and the sacrifices that come with it. And they can see that there’s no single route into the game.
I have a huge amount of respect for that. Rugby careers don’t last forever, and having interests and skills beyond the pitch matters.
Archie is building something for himself while giving younger players an honest look at what life at this level involves. For a young player wondering whether the game has a place for him beyond age-grade rugby, that could be worth far more than another highlights reel.
INSIDE THE BLACKHEATH DRESSING ROOM
A few important questions that needed answering. Archie’s answers had one thing in common: he’d back any of them.
The biggest character in the squad?
- Billy Harding, the captain. Pure energy, and he leads by example. The boys follow him for a reason.
The man who gets away with murder?
- Jordan Burns, the vice-captain. He rarely does anything wrong, but when he does, nobody says a word.
Who would you want beside you in a scuffle?
- Josh Smart. Always first in to back a teammate.
Who would you least like to fight?
- James Cornish. Around 5’7″ or 5’8″ and 100kg, reportedly squatting about 240kg, with a nasty streak that switches on at the white line. Never judge a prop by his height.
Worst person to sit next to on the away journey?
- Rory Marsh, who takes up all the space. Two props side by side simply isn’t an option.
FINAL WHISTLE
When you watch Champ rugby, you see 30 blokes running around, smashing into each other and putting their bodies on the line. What you don’t always see is everything that has happened before kick-off.
The working week. The coaching sessions. The journeys to training. The sacrifices made to keep playing at a level that demands so much, while still building a life outside the game.
Archie’s story is a reminder of all of that.
His route to the Champ wasn’t straightforward. There was no academy pathway to carry him through, no guarantee that university rugby would lead anywhere and no certainty that he’d become a first-team player at Blackheath. He kept going, found his position and earned his opportunity.
Now he’s helping coach the next generation while showing them what might be possible if they stick with the game.
And at Blackheath, he’s found more than a rugby club. He’s found a group of teammates, friends and supporters who have become part of his journey.
Stories like Archie’s help explain what it takes to get there.
Long may the journey continue.
Interview by Oliver Addis, TheTackleBagChat
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