An extract by Steve Mascord from the ABK Beer Test Series 2024 Programme, available to purchase on match day at £5.
SUCCESS and career advancement can happen at a painstaking, glacial speed - and they can also dawn in a split second, without warning.
The rugby league journey of Samoa’s young coach Ben Gardiner is a reflection of both these immutable truths. Since joining the Sydney Roosters’ staff at the end of his playing career two decades ago, there have been setbacks and pleasant surprises in almost equal measure.
We asked Gardiner to introduce himself to the British rugby league public and retrace the road that brings him to The Brick Community Stadium on Sunday.
“I played footy growing up - my love as a kid was to play rugby league,” says the native of Yamba, a town on the New South Wales far north coast with a permanent population of 7000 which can triple in tourist season.
“I moved down to Sydney, playing with the Roosters, Tigers and Newtown over a 10-year period.
“At the back end of that career, a good guy by the name of Brian Canavan who’s a very good administrator in the game, was working at the Roosters and he said to me ‘I know you’re doing a sports science degree - would you like to come and do some strength and conditioning for our 16s and 18s teams?’.
“And I went ‘oh yeah, sure, that would be good. It might be an opportunity once footy has finished’.
“I was still playing, I was just starting out as a school teacher and I was doing the strength and conditioning.”
Twenty years ago, Gardiner graduated to being S and C coach for under 20s and reserve grade at the tricolours “and that’s where I met Ivan”. Ivan Cleary, that is, the coach of four time NRL premiership winners Penrith, which is where Gardiner works today.
“Ivan and I coached the reserve grade together,” he recalls. “I was strength and conditioning coach, assistant coach and he was head coach.
“At the same time Shane Flanagan was the under 20s coach and I was doing the same role with his team … that was a pretty good start.
“Of those two teams, the under 20s were undefeated and won the grand final and the reserve grade went on and won the grand final as well so 2004 was a pretty good year for me.”
As you would expect therefore, Gardiner rose up the ranks at Moore Park pretty quickly, moving into a full-time role as rehabilitation coach and then coaching and performance analyst under Brad Fittler.
But when Fittler was jettisoned in 2007, Gardiner went with him.
It was his first big setback.
Neighbours South Sydney were willing to, as the cliche goes, throw him a lifeline. But it was as an under 20s assistant and S and C coach - which meant going back to part-time rugby league work and teaching for the next three years.
When Michael Maguire started at Redfern in 2012, he held a meeting with Gardiner about bringing him on board as National Youth Competition coach. But ‘Madge’ then forgot about his would-be protege until he showed up for his first day on the job, three months later.
Cue one of those pleasant surprises.
“I showed up and said ‘who’s coaching the team? I guess I’m just strength and conditioning coach again’,” Gardiner recalls.
“And he said ‘no, better get yourself organised because I forgot to call you because you’re coaching the team!’
“That was my introduction to being a head coach - on the spot there on that day.”
When the opportunity came for Gardiner to return to fulltime employment in rugby league at Souths, it didn't make financial sense to do so as teaching was a steady gig and he had a few unexpected bills that needed paying.
So, another step back ... in a way.
He renewed his relationship with Flanagan, who was now the gaffer at Cronulla.
"That year I ran on the field for the NRL team ... back when you could run on the field," he continues, "and worked with the 20s."
The approach to go back to Souths as NYC boss and assistant NRL coach in 2014 was fateful; that was the year the cardinal and myrtle lifted their first top grade premiership in 43 years.
"From the team I coached through the 20s, we had seven of them in the grand final team," he says proudly.
"We're talking about Adam Reynolds, Kyle Turner, Luke Keary, Api Koroisau, Dylan Walker.....
"That was a career highlight: first year as an assistant (first grade) coach and we win..."
Time for the next lightning bolt of advancement.
A month and a half into the 2015 season, Maguire summoned Gardiner to his office once more.
"He said 'I'm going to make some changes. He said 'don't worry about going and doing the review of the NYC, get dressed, grab your gear, you're going over to coach North Sydney'.
"It was the same way I got the job for the 20s."
The 1908 foundation club was the Bunnies' feeder team at the time.
"It was one of the greatest learning achievements of my coaching life.
"A club like North Sydney with such a proud history and a club like Souths with such a proud history, there as a careful balance between developing players and wanting to win from a North Sydney perspective.
"I had to manage my own staff, I had to work with and manage the board ... it was a great introduction to being a head coach in the future."
When that ended, it was a former player he had coached at South Sydney - David Kidwell - who invited Gardiner to join the Kiwis staff and ushered in the next stage of his career: international rugby league.
"I ended up coaching with the Kiwis for six years, I coached 22 Test matches with the Kiwis," Gardiner continues.
"...playing in different parts of the world, working with different players so that was really cool.
"I did that with no club footy until 2021. In 2021 I got back into coaching NSW Cup with Wests and then Covid took over after about 20 rounds. We were leading the comp....
"The following year catapulted me back into coaching fulltime with Wests Tigers."
And this was the season that gave Gardiner his sole first grade coaching match as a caretaker - an extremely controversial 27-26 loss to North Queensland with a penalty awarded after the siren on a captain's challenge.
"When I wasn't coaching fulltime, I was teaching at different schools - some tough kids and some kids from tough backgrounds," he reflects.
"That probably prepped me best to be the coach I am now, taught me to be a bit more patient, reminded me of what's important in my coaching.
"(That is) relationships and being prepared and organised. They are things I really value as a coach.
"You learn and you build resilience. Things change and you've got to adjust but you also have to try and use that to be a better coach.
"As a young coach at Norths and Souths I probably tried to be more like my mentors.
"Then I learned something out of that. You've got to be yourself and you've got to coach your own way."
Samoa at first offered Gardiner the job just for the Pacific Championships in 2023, something at which he baulked. Eventually, though, he accepted the situation and demonstrated, in his words, an 'attention to detail' and a 'cultural buy-in' that allowed him to retain the job as Matt Parish's Toa Samoa successor.
And here Ben Gardiner is, 20 years later, at The Brick Community Stadium.
Whatever Sunday afternoon throws up, here is one man who won't confront it unprepared...
Tickets for the England v Samoa two-game Test series are available to buy now at rugby-league.com/tickets with prices starting per test match from £25 Adults and £12.50 Under 16s.
