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| PREETI VIRDEE |
Director - Editor in Chief |
Two startling events took place at the beginning of the 21st Century: England won the 2003 Rugby World Cup and Preeti Virdee arrived in earnest on the rugby scene. To begin with, she gained invaluable experience in a core rugby skill required to appreciate the sport and succeed in the industry by launching the rugby-favourite wine bar Harrington’s On The Green in Twickenham – of course this experience required the ability to drink pretty much everyone under the table! The natural progression of course was to get involved with her greatest passion – England Rugby, which she did by taking on the role of advertising manager for England Rugby magazine for the RFU, as well as launching Scotland Rugby magazine for the SRU. So having acquired the necessary skills, she then moved on to Rugby For the Girls as journalist, media manager and co-editor.
Prior to that, having been subjected to public school in the form of both the Old Vicarage prep school in Richmond, followed by the Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton, and then some bright sparks at University awarding her a degree in Economics, she concluded that the way forward had to be in the fine art of marketing – trying to become a legend in her own lunchtime. She has been a marketing professional since 1994 in a number of industries with companies including Tarmac Professional Services, Comshare, Global Cyber Sports, Sportstalk, Eclipse Sports, KeyTec Solutions and Euro Personnel Services. However, after discovering that rugby on Planet Earth was seriously lacking in the lifestyle department, she decided to fill the gap with Rugby Unplugged.
If you do not find Preeti eating, breathing, talking or watching rugby (or obsessing over her rugby hero Martin Johnson), please check – she might not have a pulse.
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| NIKI MOORE |
Editor Southern Hemisphere |
Journalist and author Niki Moore has worked in every aspect of print and broadcast journalism in South Africa and elsewhere, and her talents include writing, editing, production, presenting, script-writing, and working amongst the world’s top hard-core news journalists. She has done time at the South African Broadcasting Corporation and many newspapers and magazines.
This award-winning journalist has been equally at home questioning celebrities and politicians, covering conferences and car launches, and dodging bullets in the townships. In between she somehow managed to squeeze in running her own PR & Communications company with clients including Shell Petroleum, Gold Reef City and Stellenbosch Farmer’s Winery.
However, after twenty years of interviewing various stuffed shirts, Niki found that rugby players are far more fun. She has just published the ‘Little Book of Rugby’, and is still making up her mind who is her favourite rugby player, although she has been heard to remark that if Dan Carter played his cards right she might consider a date.
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| CALLY HOCKNELL |
Lady Hocknell |
Where does one begin? Having attended the Stover Public School For Young Ladies, this West Country girl moved to the land of the Good Life to the suburban town of Surbiton to attend yet another public girls school before being awarded a First Class degree in Law. And with credentials like these, where else is there to go but marketing – and within the drinks industry, of course.
So here she is at Budweiser, moving up from brand ambassador when we won the last Rugby World Cup to European Marketing Manager as we are about to lose our title at the next one. And like all our wonder women at Rugby Unplugged, there’s far more to her than just that pretty face, she has a penchant for chocolate and male rugby player’s thighs and shoulders (although perhaps not at the same time), spends much time dancing to cheesy music most weekends… and races powerboats over the summer. Her proficient ability to be a team player is further enhanced during the rest of the year as a distinguished member of the Harlequins Ladies Rugby squad.
And so this social butterfly is gracing us with her presence to bring you all the latest happenings in the world of rugby.
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| PAUL GAMBLE PhD CSCS |
Dr Fitness |
Paul Gamble worked with English Premiership club London Irish for four seasons, latterly as Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach. Having left London Irish after the 2004-2005 season after completing his PhD in Exercise Physiology, Paul is currently based at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh where he serves as National Strength & Conditioning Lead for Scottish Squash, in addition to delivering specialist support to athletes on the Heriot-Watt University sports scholarship programme.
Paul has published several journal articles in the field of Strength & Conditioning, and is currently writing a book on the topic of physical preparation for team sports athletes. In his spare time Paul mourns having given up his season ticket at Leicester Tigers (which survived his employment at London Irish) when he moved north to Edinburgh. We are eagerly awaiting his medical treatise on the beneficial effects of a health treatment combining beer and rugby.
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Dee started out as make-up artist and progressed to manager with Helena Rubinstein, then moving on to Yves Saint Laurent, and later became a Clarins beauty consultant in the heart of London’s West End.
With 20 years experience in the beauty industry and continuously keeping up with on-going beauty trends and treatments, this led to a demand for regular clients requesting private make-up and bridal work. Hence since 1996, Dee has been running her own beauty consultancy.
We feel that many aspects of rugby could do with some beautification, so we look forward to the fruits of Dee’s effort. She might be a nouveau rugby fan, but we at Rugby Unplugged intend to end that nonsense quite rapidly.
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| VANESSA GRAY |
Ladies Rugby Editor |
Nessie is our lady who understands rugby more than anyone else on the team – because of her extensive experience in playing rugby at the highest level – as England prop. She was part of the squad who have won the Six Nations Grand Slam in 2006 and 2007, and a Silver Medallist in the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2006, when England were narrowly beaten by New Zealand’s Black Ferns. At club level, Nessie has played for Wasps FC since 1998, and like the London Wasps boys, the club is in the habit of winning titles – 3 League and 1 National Cup since she has been part of the squad.
And when she’s not busy representing her country, she’s working for the RFUW as an administrator, and has been since we won the last Rugby World Cup in 2003. And because of her insider knowledge, not just as a player, but a coach too, we’ve charged her with the daunting task of introducing the male-dominated rugby world to guide us through the fascinating world of Ladies’ Rugby.
We’re not quite sure where she’s found the time to do all this, but she has also managed to become a qualified fitness, indoor cycling, circuit training and gym instructor, as well as being more than proficient at tennis, squash, spinning, horse riding and weight training. And if you can take a breath from that for a moment, she also has a string of diplomas in business and finance. This lass knows all about balance!
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Having been schooled at the highly regarded Francis Holland public school in the heart of Central London, this Sloane Ranger moved to the Midlands to become a Civil Engineer. Since then we have been blaming her for all the traffic congestion problems around Twickenham Stadium as she worked in traffic engineering and transport planning until very recently.
Finally she could take no more and took the plunge to make a significant change in her career path which coincided with the creation of Rugby Unplugged. And her move was to Turner & Townsend, Project Management Consultants extraordinaire, whose directors have a thing for rugby too.
There is one huge benefit to being a Project Manager working for an international construction and management consultancy – it gives you plenty of after-hours time to stalk through mud and glory to take photographs of rugby players. Jo Wallwork has been wild about rugby since she was old enough to trip over a ball, and last season decided to give some legitimacy to her passion by becoming a freelance rugby photographer. Since then she has covered International, Premiership and Armed Forces games throughout Britain. She is one of the founder members of Rugby Unplugged and will be continuing as Official Photographer in the coming season, also holding the position of Project Manager in the milliseconds between everything else.
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| DAMIEN HUTCHINS |
Membership |
Damien and rugby just fit – so much so that he worked for National League One team, Newbury RFC working in corporate events, sponsorship and assisting the GM, before moving to Guinness Premiership’s NEC Harlequins as the Ticket Office Manager. And his drive and knowledge of the industry and membership experience makes him the perfect candidate to run Rugby Unplugged’s Turnstiles – he knows just how to keep our members happy!
And before that? Well, the promotion of rugby requires sales, project management and business development experience – things that Damien has in spades. His mean ability with a glass (pictured) will be one of the driving forces for moving our business onwards and upwards.
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Sarah Niblock has spent the majority of the last decade propping up the media department of the SRU – and this has meant taking on the role of mother, cheerleader and psychologist. She has done everything from media and public relations to match announcer, international programme writer – and has even sung the national anthem on the pitch.
From the ultimate Five Nations win in 1999, through Calcutta Cup victories, international tours and Heineken Cup finals, she was always proud to look after ‘her boys’ and claimed that her years with Scotland were “not always a pleasure but definitely always a privilege”.
Now Sarah has moved from rugby to comedy (and is still trying to see the difference) – has spent some time being a judge at the Perrier Comedy Awards; and is currently a freelance communications consultant and press manager for the Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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| JOHN FALLON |
Designer & Photographer |
John’s design career kicked off in the character merchandise market for clients such as Disney, Mattel, Hasbro and Lucas Films. He believes he picked up valuable print and artwork experience but this may also account for his mischievous childish side! From there he continued to move through more serious pastures working for in-house studios in technology marketing companies but the impressive client list continued to build with Symantec, CAT Logistics, Seagate, Gartner, Unisys and Microsoft.
In 2004 John took the leap and set up his own business as designer, photographer and brand consultant. Working as a consultant within other agencies and also working directly with his own clients he hasn’t looked back.
He has a passion for cricket as well as rugby, but we’ve decided we will not hold this against him.
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A prominent client of Will’s summed him up quite nicely, and we at Rugby Unplugged can probably attest to it too…
"Will is a rare breed. He combines an acute understanding of eBusiness, eCommerce and eMarketing tools and technologies, together with sound business process awareness and commercial understanding.
When I work with Will I don't need to worry about project creep, or technical translations missing the mark. The solutions he develops hit the mark every time - saving money and helping me to drive new business revenues.
I will work with Will in the future - and would recommend him to anyone who wants to use their website as a competitive differentiator."
And as for his connection with rugby…well, he knows what it is!
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