| I wish the lads would stop calling me Mikey, I look nothing like the guy from big brother” Ali Warnock starts the Interview “I don’t even sound that Scottish”. I had to disagree.
Ali Warnock is one of the most genuinely helpful and easy to like guys in rugby. He started his rugby at Biggar, his local club and was coached by his father there until the age of 14. “Obviously my Dad is one of my heroes, giving up his time to coach the youth at Biggar. It’s not the biggest place but we are proud of our rugby” Ali rushed on “probably my proudest moment was making my senior team debut for Biggar when I was 16, I can remember how great I felt to this day”. Ali appeared in the Scottish Cup Final for Biggar, and even carried on playing for his hometown club while at Stirling University.
Moving on to Boroughmuir , a Scottish Premier 1 club Ali was part of the team that finished 2nd in his first year and won the league in his second. This led to a move to Edinburgh after two years, and a place in the Scotland Development Squad. With things not quite working out, Ali moved on to Nottingham for a while but settled more at Scottish Club Currie. While at Nottingham Ali had the distinction of playing Sevens in the Commonwealth games. “ Running out in front of 55 000 in an Australian Stadium takes some beating as an experience” ali Explained.
During his time at Currie, Ali met Lynn Howells. “I’d been training with Edinburgh in the hope of gaining a contract, and made something like 8 appearances in that time. I was a fan of Lynn as a coach, and after he left I kept in touch”. Despite getting a contract with Edinburgh, Ali almost ended up coming to Doncaster earlier than this season. “There were preliminary talks about me coming on loan to Doncaster under Lynn, but unfortunately these didn’t develop further” Warnock explained.
“If I am totally honest, when I came here I signed for Lynn Howells, and not Doncaster Knights as such originally” Ali admitted “I have a lot of loyalty to Lynn, and enjoy his training sessions etc”
“Now I’ve spent some time here, I’m Doncaster Knights through and through and love the potential of the place” Ali told us, “ Luke Gross helped me settle in which I couldn’t thank him enough for, and with Simon Grainger handling the cleaning and cooking im set for life” he finished on.
Ali cites his most embarrassing moment in rugby was missing 3 consecutive kicks in the Knights game v Rotherham “Most people have forgotten that now, but I need to make amends” he stated. That felt almost comforting at the end of an interview, to hear a player so recently arrived at Doncaster to making up for a performance he admits himself was under par.
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