Karl Harrison

Playing career

Harrison was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. He started his professional career at Bramley, making his début in 1983. He joined Hull F.C. from Featherstone Rovers, and helped them win the Premiership in 1991. He reluctantly joined Halifax a year later in a £100,000 deal. He played for the Point Chevalier Pirates in the Auckland Rugby League competition in the off season. Harrison played prop, in Hull F.C.'s 14–4 victory over Widnes in the Premiership Final during the 1990–91 season at Old Trafford, Manchester on Sunday 12 May 1991. He was selected to go on the 1992 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand. Harrison has a wife called Suzanne. In September 1992 Harrison's first son, Samuel was born. Three years later, their second son, James was born. He won the last of his 14 international caps in 1994.

Harrison was selected to play for England in the 1995 World Cup Final at prop forward but Australia won the match and retained the cup.

Coaching career

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 Bradford under Brian Noble. He had also been a coach at Halifax and then head coach at Keighley before moving to Bradford. 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 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.

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. He was the head coach of Salford rugby league team for five years, before being sacked on 22 May 2007. He became head coach of Batley where he was to become a fans' favourite, turning the playing squad around drastically after Gary Thornton's departure. Following a long period out of the game, following his sacking as Salford coach, Harrison returned to Rugby League as Senior Scholarship coach at Huddersfield late in 2008. He took Batley to the final of the Northern Rail Cup in 2010, where they beat the favourites, Widnes. His last season at Batley was 2011 when they finished a creditable 4th in the Cooperative Championship. In 2012 he rejoined Halifax as head coach.