MY LIFE IN RUGBY
Iwas born in Warrington and my uncle, Ken Gill, played Rugby League for Great Britain but I never played the 13-man game, it was Union for me from the age of 8 down at St Helens RUFC, where my dad was chairman.
After stepping up from junior rugby, where I played alongside namesake, Joe Worsley for England U16s and 18s, I gained a lot of experience early in my senior career, in the Orrell and Bristol first teams, while still a student at Bristol University. It was Orrell’s last season in the top division (1996/97) and I remember propping against Victor Ubogu.
Before I’d reached my 20th birthday, I found myself coming up against the New Zealand Barbarians for The North on a snow-covered pitch in Huddersfield. With a front row of ‘Bull’ Allen, Sean Fitzpatrick and Olo Brown, they were the All Blacks in all but name and we got hammered 86-0.
Travelling back and forth between Bristol and Orrell got too much so I joined Bristol in the final year of my studies. Being made redundant at the end of that relegation season brought the harsh realities of professional sport into focus, but I still enjoyed my time there.
It was all loosely professional. Myself and fellow students Fraser Waters and Josh Lewsey had clauses in our contracts that said it was at our discretion if we trained or not if rugby clashed with our University commitments. Imagine that today!
When the Bristol team disbanded I went to London Irish. Win, lose or draw Sunbury was always rocking. We were always competitive under Besty (Dick Best) but things really took off under Brendan Venter. As a player-coach, he knew when to go easy on us and when to put us under pressure.
I’d rate Brendan as the best coach I ever had; he is so innovative as we saw with Italy during the Six Nations. While everyone else was still copying Phil Larder’s England drift defensive system, he decided to do something different and introduced an ‘up and in’ defence, which caught a lot of teams unawares.
Our crowning glory was when we finished fourth in the Premiership and beat Northampton to lift the Powergen Cup. I knew we had the better of them when I saw Matt Dawson and Budge Pountney pushing and shoving one another in disagreement after we’d built up a healthy half-time lead. My eldest son, William, was born the day before the final, so that weekend, April 19-20, will always be special for me.
Rightly or wrongly I felt I needed to leave London Irish to further my international ambitions. I’d grown disillusioned with the club’s rotation policy where Neal Hatley and I would interchange around the 50-minute mark no matter how either one of us was playing. I’d just broken into the England set-up and I felt that it was holding me back.
To be honest, I expected more from my time at Quins. Winning a trophy – the Parker Pen Challenge Cup - in my first year was special but the squad was stretched too thin the following season by competing in the Heineken Cup and we were relegated. A dislocated ankle and spiral fracture of the fibula put an end to my career.
If I had my time again, I probably would be a hooker. I have no regrets because I got three England caps and was part of the 2003 squad that won the Grand Slam, but I think I got type cast very early on as a prop. One thing I try and do now when I coach the kids at Cranleigh School is to make sure they try out a few different positions.
At bang on 17 stone, I was always considered to be on the light side for a prop and maybe I was a bit unfortunate to be around at the same time as quality players such as Jason Leonard, Graham Rowntree, Trevor Woodman, David Flatman and Andrew Sheridan.