Profile - Richard Vasey

Programme Profile - October 2008 - Richard Vasey

Richard Vasey joined Moseley in the close season from Leeds Carnegie, for whom he made twenty-seven appearances, almost all at fly half. Last season, however, his opportunities in the Premiership were limited by the arrival of Alberto Di Bernardo from Cornish Pirates. Nevertheless, he was the leading scorer for Leeds in the Guinness ‘A’ League.

Richard, who was a former England Students fly half (05/06 & 07/08), joined Leeds from Morley in 2005, when he was twenty, so Moseley is the first club he has played for outside the West Riding of Yorkshire. He weighs 13st 4lbs and is 5ft 10in (1.78m) tall.

A Yorkshireman to his fingertips, Richard was born in Leeds in January 1985, but brought up in Wakefield. He was educated at his local secondary school before entering the sixth form of Silcoates School, from where he went on to Leeds Metropolitan University to take a degree in Accountancy & Finance. It is there that he met his girl friend, Caroline Reed from Bristol, who was reading Sports Development. She has followed Richard to Birmingham and they are living in Selly Oak. Richard has joined Moseley’s schools coaching programme and has settled in well.

Having played in the Premiership, Richard is in a good position to take a view on comparative standards. He senses that the fully professional sides in National League One are close to the average Premiership side but, as Moseley would confirm, there is a significant, and perhaps widening, gap between the full time sides at the top of League One and the remainder.

Richard has been a key member of Moseley’s Experimental Law Variations Working Group and I asked him what difference the new laws have made to his game as a fly half.

He confessed that they gave him a lot to think about at the start of the season and that the rule change with the most impact on him is not being able to kick the ball out on the full after it has been passed back into the 22. Before the change, relieving pressure was a lot easier. Now, many kicks have to go longer, looking for space to set up a kick chase, as opposed to finding touch on the full. Richard commented that, while the new rule was introduced to reward more running rugby from deep, it has led to a lot more ‘kick tennis’ between the two teams, rather than having the desired effect.

The new five metre defensive line rule also affects fly halves. It was introduced to give the attacking team more space and time to breach well organised defences. In reality it has led to more ‘pick-up and go (s)’ from the base of the scrum, with the No. 8 having more space to get up a head of steam and gain easy ground. On a positive note, however, he believes that the introduction of the quick line-out throw has had a good effect and is adding a lot more tempo to the game.

Richard has made a quite outstanding start with his goal kicking. In the four league matches he kicked thirteen penalties/conversions and only missed one, an incredible success rate of 93%. One rugby press reporter termed it ‘world class’. While the subsequent two games reduced this to an overall nineteen penalties/conversions with six misses, this is still a highly impressive 76% success rate. Long may he continue in this vein!

After he hangs up his boots, Richard hopes to use his degree to enter one of the professional accountancy firms and train to become a Chartered Accountant. In the meantime he intends to use his proximity to Birmingham University to broaden his horizons beyond merely cricket and rugby league.