FORMER West Hartlepool and Darlington Mowden Park scrum half Philip Harvey has been appointed Rugby Development Officer for Teesside, writes Tim Wellock.

Harvey, 26, a Durham School product who was born in Bishop Auckland, starts next month in a post newly-created by the RFU.

"My area will include Hartlepool and part of North Yorkshire," said Harvey. "Whether it will include Darlington is still being discussed.

"Darlington has been doing really well rugby-wise, and the aim is to get Teesside up to that level. There are plenty of people who are excellent in what they do, but we need to get them together and co-ordinate things and make them aware of funding opportunities.

"The job will involve creating better links between clubs and schools, and attracting more players, coaches, referees and administrators into the game.

"I also want to put something in place which really focuses on Teesside's needs in terms of administation and infrastructure."

Harvey has been doing a similar job at Northumbria University for the last ten months, which would have prevented him playing much for Mowden last season even had he been fit.

After experiencing Premiership rugby with West, he helped Mowden into the national leagues but suffered a serious shoulder injury 16 months ago.

"It's still not 100 per cent and I also hurt my ankle ligaments in training, so I'm not thinking about playing seriously next season," he said. "My commitment is to this job. I'm really looking forward to it."