TAMESIDE will have two representatives looking to do their country proud as Great Britain Police rugby league team heads to Australia.
Sergeants Ben Marsden and Robert Froggatt are more familiarly seen in uniform making sure the borough’s streets are safe in Stalybridge and Ashton-under-Lyne respectively.
But on March 2 they will be in very different surroundings, in very different kit, as they take on their Australian counterparts at Leichhardt Oval in Sydney.
Four days later, they will take on the best of New South Wales’ force on a tour the players have paid for themselves.
And the change in circumstances will bring a complete change of mindset, along with the way it is delivered.
Sgt Froggatt said: “There’ s a bit less pressure I suppose and that banter with the lads is better than being out on the streets. I’d rather chase a rugby ball around.
“Everything the police does is seen as having to be prim and proper and going from the police to the pitch does stand you in good stead.
“You show your opponents the same respect you show members of the public day in, day out. However, it’s a different kind of respect.
“With rugby heads on, we’ve a completely different mindset to how we are on the street.
“We’re local lads and having grown up around the rugby environment, you get that cheeky chappy bit about you.
“It’s the same with the public and 99 per cent soon realise you’re only there to help them.”
Sgt Marsden added as the players had their shirts presented to them by former Leeds Rhinos star turned Sky Sports presenter Barrie McDermott: “We show the same respect, just with a bit more industrial language.
“You work hard, you play hard. We’ve both grown up playing rugby league to decent levels, so you’ll never take the rugby league out of us.
“And as soon as players know they’re playing the police, they up their game.”
Along with the financial commitment of funding their trip, the Tameside two will be leaving behind both their work teams and, more importantly, their families.
And fitting rugby league in around work and home lives is tricky.
Sgt Froggatt added: “It is hard because we’ve both got families too – we’ve both got two children and fitting everything in is difficult but we work hard and we’re really well supported at work.
“Our senior leadership team, our bosses, support us. When we need sports leave, they really support and dedicate a lot of time to us, so we’re not using all our annual leave.”
Sgt Marsden, who also oversees policing in Dukinfield and Mossley and whose father Bob is coach, explained: “It is hard but a lot of it is just doing it in your own time, trying to get the fitness in.
“We play locally but we have to split it. It’s a fine margin but you just have to divide your time really well.”
And how will them being on the other side of the world impact policing locally? It should not.
Sgt Froggatt, who will have Tameside PC James Forster as assistant coach, told The Correspondent: “Ben and I will be covered by a couple of other sergeants.
“We all look after each ither from time to time and before we go, all staff will be pre-arranged and operations planned.
“Our CID colleagues will also help out. If there’s a bug job and they ned help or assistance, they can go to other departments too.”
And can rugby and policing cross over? Absolutely, as an incident in Ashton proved.
Sgt Froggatt recalled: “A couple of years ago, we had an armed knifeman who was committing robberies and we knew he was using the tram network.
“We had a knifepoint robbery come into Ashton town centre, so Ben and I drove straight to the tram stop and the robber was there.
“It was a long foot chase but we ended up catching him outside a local supermarket, detained him when he still had the knife and the property he’d just stolen.
“With all the kit and equipment we had on, we had a bit of an advantage through rugby.
“There was no high tackle either, we went hard and low!”