Karl Harrison

Karl Harrison

Karl Harrison, (born 20 February 1964 in Leeds) is an English former rugby league player and coach. He was a player for Hull and Halifax, and also represented Great Britain at prop forward. He won the last of his 14 International caps in 1994. He was the head coach of Salford City Reds rugby league team for five years, before being sacked on 22 May 2007. He became head coach of Batley Bulldogs where he was to become a fans favourite, turning the playing squad around drastically after Gary Thornton's departure. He took Batley to the final of the Northern Rail Cup in 2010, where they beat the favourites, Widnes Vikings. His last season at Batley was 2011 when the Bulldogs finished a creditable 4th in the Cooperative Championship. In 2012 he rejoined Halifax RLFC as Head Coach.

As a player he was a rock-solid prop of the old school. He joined Hull from Featherstone and helped them win the Premiership in 1991. He reluctantly joined Halifax a year later in a £100,000 deal. He was selected to go on the 1992 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand.

He played for the Pt Chev Pirates in the Auckland Rugby League competition in the off season.

He was appointed as Head Coach at Salford in June 2002, replacing Steve McCormack. He previously worked for two years as an assistant coach at the Bradford Bulls under Brian Noble. He had also been a coach at Halifax Blue Sox and then head coach at Keighley Cougars before moving to Bradford Bulls. Although he was unable to prevent Salford being relegated from Super League in 2002, Harrison remained with the team and led them to promotion back to the top tier of the sport at the first attempt, winning the Arriva Trains Cup on the way.

Harrison was also coach of the England team, replacing John Kear, from 2004 until 4 August 2006, when he announced that he would be stepping down from the position. In mid-February 2007, there were some strong suggestions that Harrison could return to a role with the International team, but the Salford Chairman, John Wilkinson denied the rumours.

Following a long period out of the game, following his sacking as Salford coach, Harrison returned to Rugby League as Senior Scholarship coach at the Huddersfield Giants late in 2008.

Harrison claims that he was approached to take part in reality television show, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2004, but turned the opportunity down, citing training commitments at Salford.