It may not be widely known but rugby is quite popular in Sweden.

And it’s not just the men’s game that’s popular because a good number of women play rugby as well.

And helping the women to improve is a rugby coach from Gloucestershire, someone who is very well known around the county and who has done so much for the great game for a good number of years now.

Step forward Richard Whincup, who is kicking coach for the Swedish women’s rugby team.

He’s got a few other roles in rugby as well, namely kicking coach for Worcester Warriors’ women’s team, the English Universities women’s team and Stow-on-the-Wold men’s teams, as well as being coach for Tewkesbury Tigers Under-13s, the team for whom his oldest son Tom plays.

He’s had a number of other roles as well but for all the excellence of his rugby CV, there is far, far more to Richard Whincup than just an oval ball.

You see, the 39-year-old has got to where he is today in the face of great adversity, overcoming some tough times that would have cowed many a child growing up.

That’s because for as long as he can remember Whincup had a stammer.

And it is one that was so bad that he remembers thinking when he was younger he’d give his right arm not to stutter.

It was a tough start to life but this is a remarkable story, a story of fortitude, resilience and determination, and one that has a happy ending because talk to Whincup today and you’d never know that he ever had a stammer.

But that’s what makes his story all the more uplifting of course.

Whincup was brought up in Stow along with his sister Sophie by his parents Steve and Shelley and he said: “I grew up with a bad stammer, I had a stutter almost from the time my parents put me in a car seat.”

His supportive parents always spoke for him, as there were times when speaking was nearly impossible. His parents would make phone calls for him and would try to take any pressure away from him when he had to speak.

“People were very kind to me in Stow, I was just ‘Rich the Stammerer’,” recalls Whincup.

But while people were kind having a stammer obviously slowed the young Whincup’s development.

He led as normal a life as possible and started playing rugby at Stow at the age of five, an environment in which he thrived.

But mixing with his rugby-playing peers also brought with it difficulties.
“I couldn’t crack jokes and I wasn’t involved in the banter in the changing room,” he recalled.

It didn’t get any easier as he grew older but even as a teenager Whincup, despite his difficulties, had plenty about him because he was head boy at Cotswold School in Bourton-on-the-Water.

That’s some achievement even though he said: “I used to avoid certain situations and I’d avoid the telephone. When I was head boy I had to ask the head girl to give the vote of thanks, my stammer held me back from doing things.

“It got worse when I went to college in Solihull, I’d moved away from home and it was a tough old time.

“I was away from my comfort blanket in Stow where everyone knew me. I was asked to get off a bus once because I couldn’t get a ticket and my presentations at college were a car crash, people fell asleep!”

That was just over 20 years ago, so what was it that brought about the change in his life, a change that means these days he is confident and able to do everything and anything that is thrown at him.

“My late mum used to clean the library in Stow and saw a poster about the McGuire Programme,” he explained.

For those who don’t know, the McGuire Programme is a programme that can transform people who stutter into articulate, well-spoken people. And it certainly worked for Whincup, who was absolutely delighted when The Local Answer called him in early July because it was almost exactly 20 years to the day since he joined the programme.

“I’d been through lots of speech therapy,” he continued, “but my mum was the driving force behind me getting involved with the McGuire Programme.

“They held an Open Day in Bath and I agreed to go down there. They showed videos of people who stuttered and one person said, ‘I’d give my right arm not to stammer’.

“That was exactly how I felt, I thought, ‘They’ve hit the nail on the head’.”

His dad and he agreed that this was an opportunity that he simply had to try so he joined the McGuire Programme and of course it turned out to be one the very best things he ever did.

“I started on a Wednesday and on the Sunday I remember I walked out of the hotel,” he said. “I wasn’t speaking quicker but I was in control of my stammer for the first time for 19-and-a-half years.

“I thought I’ll get on board with this, I’ll give it everything I’ve got.”

And that was one of the secrets of Whincup’s success because he did give it everything he had.

As with pretty much everything in life, hard work is the key and for all that the McGuire Programme has done for Whincup, it only happened because he made it happen.

Put very simply, the McGuire Programme involves a technique that is based on an individual’s breathing and speaking with a deeper tone at the top of the breath.

“Slowly but surely I built up my confidence and once I’d mastered the technique I thought it was time to take it into the real world and work outside my comfort zone,” said Whincup who lives in Tewkesbury and is a lecturer in Sports Business at Hartpury University.

“I wanted to place myself in tough situations where I have to speak in front of people, that’s why I work at Hartpury and why I’m a rugby coach.

“I keep on top of my stammer by making myself feel uncomfortable. It’s hard work but I had to do something otherwise it would have put limitations on my career and life.

“You’ve got to put yourself out there and I’m still part of the McGuire Programme. Since I first joined I’ve instructed 10 courses and I’ve done many staff training courses.”

And if you think that’s a pretty remarkable story, there’s more to come because these days Whincup is happily married to Vicki (nee Langley) who was the head girl who read out his vote of thanks at the Cotswold School all those years ago.

Nowadays they are proud parents to Tom and Luke and it was his Tom who got Whincup back into rugby after he had drifted away from the sport for a few years.

“I remember holding Tom in my arms when he was first born and saying it would be good if he played rugby and if he did I’d like to coach him,” said Whincup, a former full-back who played a handful of games for Stow’s 1st XV as well as spending a season at Cirencester when he worked at Kingshill School.

“I started coaching him at Tewkesbury when he was five and I’m still coaching the team now, Luke prefers singing and acting, so I do my best to support him in that as well.”

And Tewkesbury’s under-13s are just one of a good number of teams with whom Whincup, who has also been kicking coach for Gloucestershire Women and Gloucester-Hartpury Women in the past, is currently involved with.

Whincup is a big fan of the women’s game. Most of the Swedish players play in the Tyrells Premier League and are based in this country – he coaches them at Staines and Aldershot – and he said: “The thing I love about women’s rugby is that it is how rugby should be played and how it used to be played.

“It’s an honest, hard game and a lot of the games are won on skill because they haven’t got the size.”

Whincup spends most of his coaching time with the Worcester Warriors Women who are based at Sixways, alongside the men’s team and the kicking side of the game is just as important in the women’s game as it is in the men’s game.

“Three points is three points in any game,” said Whincup. “It’s always important to keep the scoreboard moving, to put pressure on the other team by scoring points.”

So how does he coach players to kick the ball?

“I’m a firm believer that you are going to hit rubbish kicks,” he said, “but do the analysis when things are going well.

“I want as many people as possible to enjoy kicking a rugby ball, I enjoy helping people to develop their skills.

“The technique that I coach is kicking through the ball and then following through to the target.

“Too many people try to kick the ball too hard, I try to get them to kick the ball more effectively rather than harder.

“There isn’t a lot of funding in the women’s game, but I don’t do it for the money. Having said that, I would love to be a professional coach one day.”

And after all that Richard Whincup has been through, few would bet against him achieving his goal.