There’s no chip on my shoulder these days
OLDER, WISER WIGGLESWORTH IS BACK IN THE ENGLAND MIX
IN HIS 16th season of professional rugby, Richard Wigglesworth is reflecting on how much he has changed from being a ‘cheeky little sod’ at Sale and a 20- something dragged down by a chip on his shoulder.
For the 34-year- old scrumhalf, the latter years of his career have been the time of his sporting life. An era of success, fulfilment and acclaim, without the angst of the past.
Wigglesworth has flourished at the heart of a supreme Saracens side, enjoying repeated conquests of the domestic and European game.
He is candid in accepting that he used to allow outside impressions to affect him. Critical arrows would find their target and leave wounds. Not any more.
He has learned to accept how much his work at No 9 is valued by those at his club, where he has become a canny on-field general armed with intensity, precision, aggression and a peerless kicking game.
While others in his position are acclaimed for fireworks, he just keeps helping his team win matches and titles.
Asked if he feels appreciated, Wigglesworth said: ‘Being honest, what people thought about me probably did bother me. I used to say it didn’t, but it did. I’m not much of a highlights player, so if you watch the game and you’re only flicking through it, I might not be the first name that stands out.
‘What I’d like to think I’ve done over the years is have the respect of the team-mates and coaches who work with me. You go from being a young man wanting everyone to like you, to wanting the people you respect to respect you. That’s the biggest way I have changed. There is no chip on my shoulder any more.
‘That’s not to say it won’t bug me if someone makes a throwaway comment without much thought behind it, but it doesn’t often happen now. I spent too much time in my twenties worrying about stuff like that, but I don’t any more. That’s just part of growing up.
‘You either rise to a challenge or complain about it. I’m done with complaining.
‘I spent too many years in my early twenties complaining about what should and shouldn’t be happening, but I’ve become a much better player since I’ve stopped that.’
For his club, the scenario has been similar. Just as personal achievements have not always led to due recognition, collective glory for Saracens has sometimes been met with faint praise from outside.
Last Sunday at Franklin’s Gardens, as their side tore Northampton apart in an eight-try rout to ignite their Champions Cup campaign, visiting fans occasionally indulged in an ironic chant of ‘boring, boring Sarries’. That was the tag for a long time and it has proved hard to shift. ‘ Stigmas and perceptions always live longer than they should,’ said Wigglesworth, who starts again today as Mark McCall’s men face the Ospreys at Allianz Park. ‘Eight or nine years ago we were just lumping the ball up in the air because of the laws, because we were that way inclined and because we were starting from a base of a defensive kicking game.
‘It is hard to get away from that perception of the club. It may take longer for us to get the credit we deserve.
‘What you care about is being involved at the sharp end of competitions, but certain stuff
does still annoy you. We still got all that ( about being boring) after winning the Champions Cup Final in 2016, when it was lashing it down and we had just beaten a Racing team full of superstars.
‘That year we won the Double but we weren’t even nominated for Team of the Year at the BBC Sports Personality awards. It doesn’t matter, but you think, “They haven’t realised what a big thing it is — to win a European Cup then win Premiership semis and final the two weeks after”. It is almost beyond doable, physically, but we managed it.’
Such highs have come along regularly with his club of late, but Wigglesworth (below) is still hoping for an opportunity to end his Test career on a positive note. His last cap came at the premature end of the host nation’s 2015 World Cup campaign and it appeared as if international honours were behind him, until he was called up by Eddie Jones to play against the Barbarians in May. ‘I don’t know if I had completely shut the door on it, but I wasn’t waiting for a phone call,’ he said. ‘I’d heard nothing, but then I got a call at the end of last season and Eddie’s only words to me were, “You’ve got a chance”. That’s all you need to hear. He was happy with how I was physically and wasn’t bothered about my age. I now know I just have to be good enough, so the World Cup is definitely not something that I’m ruling out.
‘No one could be keener to play for England than me. I’d like the end of my Test career not to be 10 minutes off the bench against Uruguay. There’s no way I will ever get away from those few weeks in 2015 and feel anything other than disappointment.
‘If I finished on a better note than that, I would be pleased, but as long as I try to make that not the case, I’ll be able to live with it.’