Dressing room drama: TV cameras go behind the scenes to reveal incredible moments of human drama from hidden world of team sports
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Sitting alone in a dressing room after a bruising game, a rugby player sobs quietly.
He is not in pain, or upset about the result – he is simply coming to terms with the fact he has played his last game with team mates who had become as close as brothers.
Welcome to sport’s inner sanctum, a place that is off-limits to even the most dedicated fan – until now. What goes on in the dressing room before a match, at half-time and after the final whistle is about so much more than tactics and team talks.
Now a brilliant new series on W, The Dressing Room, reveals the most emotional moments of human drama from the hidden world of match day dressing rooms around the country.
The cast includes an over-sixties hockey team, a wheelchair netball club, a Royal Navy rugby side and clubs from the lowest reaches of the English leagues, to name just a few.
While there are no famous sport stars, the unique insight into the lives, dressing room banter and pre-match preparations of the ordinary players and coaches we meet are no less fascinating.
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One of the standout figures is Paul Faili, the red-faced, acid tongued coach of Sussex amateur side Three Bridges FC.
The team had not won any of their previous 12 games when the series was filmed and were later relegated to the Southern Combination Premier League.
In one dressing room rant before a crucial league game against Dorking FC, players look on bemused as he invokes the spirit of King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, which he says happened 600 years ago that month.
(Photo: STV)
He shouts: “Listen lads, it’s nothing about them having more than us. At Agincourt the French outnumbered the English by six to one. So as far as I’m concerned, today is no different to 1415.”
He later explains: “Most of them had never heard of Agincourt or Henry V. They probably don’t know who Shakespeare is, but they needed to hear about the power that comes from inside of you, that’s why I used it.”
The team were thrashed 3-0, sending Paul into a furious postmatch tirade blaming the linesman for their defeat. We also meet brothers Rokum and Rokib, who play together for Sporting Bengal United, an Asian football team from Tower Hamlets in London.
The club is about to play its biggest ever match, an FA Cup first qualifying round tie against Hertfordshire side Kings Langley FC – which they end up losing 6-1.
(Photo: UKTV)
But the scoreline is insignificant when we find out that Rokum, 21, is suffering from chronic leukaemia – something the fans watching him from the stands outside have no idea about.
Rokum, who later has to hang up his boots because of his illness, says: “If I take a hard knock I can suffer internal bleeding. I can feel my body getting weaker. But I won’t tell the manager I’m having problems because he’s put his trust in me to play. Football takes the focus away from my illness. Once I’m out there all I can think about is the football.”
The brothers aren’t the only family members getting ready for games together in the dressing rooms. Trudy, 45, plays with her daughter Lily, 17, for the Huddersfield High-Tech netball club, and in their dressing room before their match against Hull gives her own pep talk.
Mum Trudy tells her: “Give as good as you get, you stand firm. I’m not joking, I don’t want to have to go in with my handbag. It’s an adult league, but mums still have to protect their daughters.”
The series also follows teams such as amateur rugby club Thatto Heath Crusaders who could finish their season undefeated, and the Royal Navy Rugby Club who meet their arch rivals, the Army.
As the Royal Navy team prepare to start the game, player Shaun, 28, says: “The Army and the Navy don’t have a nice relationship. We respect each other but we don’t like each other. We’re going out there to prove a point really.”
Perhaps the most poignant moment, though, is after the game, which the Navy win 25-12, when player Richie, 30, who is leaving the Forces, sobs alone after playing his last ever game for the squad.
He says: “You’re letting go of something you have worked for all your life. But it took away precious time with my family, so putting my shirt away for the last time is like saying, ‘You won’t do that to me again’.”
It is just one of many moments in the show that reveal the incredible human stories behind sporting fixtures and scorelines.
- The Dressing Room is on W at 10pm tonight (Wednesday June 14)