Former Sale Sharks winger on life as medical joker in Top 14
FORMER Sale winger Nev Edwards is hoping history will repeat itself as he looks to grab a second big opportunity to shine in top-level club rugby.
A lower league player for his entire career until a successful trial spell at the Sharks turned into a fulltime deal, Edwards now finds himself starting afresh across the channel at Bordeaux-Begles as a ‘medical joker’, covering for the injured Blair Connor.
Edwards joined the Top 14’s best-supported club in July after he was released from the final year of his contract at the Sharks and is due to stay until October – unless he can do what he did at Sale and hit the ground running and suitably impress Jacques Brunel and Co.
“It is a great opportunity and I have got to go out there and prove myself. If things have gone well at the end of the three months hopefully they’ll look to keep me on.,” Edwards told The Rugby Paper.
“It’s a great club with big ambitions in the Top 14. The players are awesome here, similar to Sale, and I’m living in the heart of a lovely city and the weather is amazing pretty much all the time.”
Old schoolfriend Danny Cipriani recommended Edwards, a prolific try scorer for Rosslyn Park in National One, to Sale and a couple of standout performances in the Kings of the North pre-season tournament earned him a one-year deal, which doubled in length in March last year following eight tries in his first nine games.
Sale boss Steve Diamond hailed Edwards “as a revelation” at the time but opportunities dried up after the arrival of high-profile Rugby League wingers, Denny Solomona and Josh Charnley, resulting in the 29-year-old making just six appearances in all competitions in 2016/17.
“I still had another year at Sale but I wasn’t very happy with how things went last season. While speaking to ‘Dimes’, he was honest about things and I thought it would be best for my development and my career if I moved on,” he said.
“I have no hard feelings about it, I was happy with my time at Sale and learned a lot. The chance to join Bordeaux-Begles came about really quickly, through my agent, and I’ve been here for six weeks now. I haven’t had too much time to sit down and think about it to be honest.”
Edwards’ transformation from part-time player and Red Bull salesman to fully-fledged pro is continuing apace in south-west France under the watchful eye of former team-mate and now Bordeaux backs coach, Rory Teague.
“I played England Counties with Rory two or three times when I was at Rosslyn Park. He has got some great coaching principles, and in the short time I have been here, I have learnt so much.”
Edwards’ last game for Sale was back in November 2016 but, in a couple of weeks’ time, he could be facing the might of Clermont Auvergne at a packed Stade Chaban-Delmas.
“I saw the stadium for the first time the other day when we drove past and it is absolutely huge. The boys were telling me we get big crowds, often 20,000 plus. I just want to go as far as I can and do the best I can for the team and develop myself in the meantime.”