Leeds Beckett Student Shares in RFL Challenge Cup Glory

Balancing work and study at the same time is a challenge many part-time students face, and final year BA (Hons) Sport Marketing student Jack Broadbent knows that better than most. He's been holding down his studies while training and spending his weekends playing for Hull KR in the Rugby Football League.

It's a balancing act that's paid off, however. He's not just about to graduate, he was also recently part of the team that won the Challenge Cup final at Wembley with Hull KR edging out Warrington Wolves 8-6 and winning the prestigious trophy for the first time since 1980.

The Batley-born star played for the Leeds Rhinos and Castleford Tigers before signing with Hull KR, and he has relocated to honour his professional contracts while travelling back and forth to Leeds Beckett to make progress with his degree.

His choice of degree fits perfectly with his sporting career, as he wanted to avoid a tunnel vision on rugby and to balance his life out with another focus. Many of the assignments he's worked on can also be related to rugby league, and he feels that his course is giving him a timely insight, as marketing is an area where rugby league has been struggling in recent years.

After the incredible Challenge Cup celebrations - "You just don't want it to end - we had a good party," - he's been focussing on polishing off his degree and looking at where it might help take him, as Jack is conscious that sporting careers can be brief.

Jack said: "The degree overlaps well with what I want to do when I finish playing, like going into a club on the corporate marketing side. The course and the staff have both been really helpful. They made everything super accessible which was important because of the overlap with my training. The facilities at Beckett are second to none as well - I trained there with Leeds and the gym, the track and everything are good enough for anybody."

Find out more about the Carnegie School of Sport.