MY LIFE IN RUGBY
Iarrived at Gloucester as a boy and left 15 years later as a man. The club and the characters and people within it shaped me into the person I am today and I have much to be thankful for.
Coming from Cirencester, it was beyond my wildest dreams to go on and make a record 278 first-team appearances for my local club (2003-2016). I do worry sometimes that I may have become slightly institutionalised though, having spent 11 years in private school and then all that time at the same club. Both secondary school and Gloucester played in Cherry and White, so not even the colours were different.
It’s a big world out there and after my final game against Northampton, career opportunities started to unfold for me. I had to be honest with myself about my motives for carrying on playing, the opportunities that I would miss if I carried on playing and my ability to run around with my kids when I'm 40.
The only thing missing from my career was a Premiership winner’s medal and an England cap and the reality was that, at that time of my life, I wasn’t in contention for either. We made one Premiership final and should have got to another while I was at Gloucester. The biggest disappointment for me was not the final defeat to Leicester in ’07 but the semi-final loss to them a year later. We’d topped the table again and were better-prepared as a squad to go all the way. Unfortunately, we threw away a 22-9 lead at home in the semi-final, Andy Goode’s drop goal proving crucial.
As for England, I got close to getting capped on a few occasions. I was chosen to start at loosehead against South Africa in Bloemfontein in 2007, but I injured my chest two days before the game and had to pull out. Having played for an England XV against the Barbarians in a non-capped international, I was then selected in the squad for the two-Test series against Argentina in 2009 but was overlooked for both. Finally, in 2012, when I was at the peak of my powers, I was injured again at just the wrong time.
Obviously winning the European Challenge Cup was a memorable occasion but if I had to choose my favourite game in a Gloucester shirt it would be the time we beat Bath 14-11 in awful conditions down at the Rec, in 2012. Eliota (Fuimaono-Supolu) made a break before offloading to Mike Tindall who was brought down just short of the line. Somehow Sinbad (James Simpson-Daniel) defied the conditions to fire out a pinpoint 40-metre pass and, thankfully, I caught it and slid in.
My comeback game against Leicester at Kingsholm in October 2014 runs it a close second. It was my first game back after being out with a bulging disc in my back. With a new coaching setup in place, I, like everyone else, was eager to impress. I managed to get on the end of a (delayed!) Tom Savage offload to score a try and we won 33-16. It was a dream start for me after everything that had happened. I had an opportunity and took it. I showed that, even at 31 as I was then, I was still able to do it.
After 15 years as a professional the only real regret I have is my red card for stamping after 73 seconds of our match against Saracens in September 2013. For once, I showed a lack of self-control. My intentions were to ruck him (Jacques Burger) off the ball and I just got it badly, badly wrong. It was an isolated incident. Despite the reports, it wasn’t the second fastest red card in Premiership history. George Robson messaged me as soon as it happened to say that he’d had a quicker one at Twickenham.