MY LIFE IN RUGBY

THE FORMER COVENTRY LOCK AND CURRENT TEAM MANAGER

All I wanted to do once I started playing rugby at Whitley Abbey School was to pull on a Coventry shirt; so to go on and to play for my hometown club 381 times was an unbelievable honour. To see my son, Ben, follow in my footsteps and play for Cov’ was really good too.

I class myself as a oneclub man because I played all my rugby from the age of 18 at Cov’ although, I did play a bit of first-team rugby for Broadstreet, who I started out with at Colts level, before joining the club.

My first team debut came in a midweek fixture against Nuneaton in the 19679/80 season, followed by a game against Gosforth, who were a big team at the time in every sense of the word, on the 1980 Easter Weekend.

The one game that you were desperate to win more than any other, though, was the annual Boxing Day clash against local rivals Moseley. You’d have around 7,000 crammed into Coundon Road and the atmosphere was amazing.

They were tough games and I’ve had many a day coming downstairs on my backside after playing in them because it was too painful to walk. I used to have a few good battles with their hooker, Coxy (Gary Cox). In those days, second rows and hookers seemed to have a bit of a thing. Our hooker, Steve Brain, was a mate of mine and he’d be in there unable to defend himself because his arms weren’t free, and you had a duty to look after him as well as yourself!

The camaraderie at Cov’ was great. During our most successful period we reached two John Player Cup semi-finals with a team that included England internationals, Graham Robbins, Steve Brain, Huw Davies and Marcus Rose, together with players of the calibre of Peter Rossborough. In one season captained by Dave Foulks, we only lost about four times in well over 40 games played.

Brian Kidner was my second row partner for much of my time and I think we complemented each other well. He was 6ft 8ins and excelled at the lineout whereas I was more of a grafter.

It was disappointing not to get to Twickenham in the John Player, having twice come so close. We were knocked out in the 1984/85 season at the final hurdle after drawing 10-10 against London Welsh and they won on the away team ruling. But we couldn’t complain too much as we only reached the last four after drawing with Leicester 10-10 and going through on the try count. I’m happy that I did manage to get to two County Championship finals with Warwickshire, winning the trophy in 1986.

Some of our biggest games were against the Welsh and because of our history, we got to play them all. Games against Newbridge were christened ‘Bloody Sunday’, there were always that many stitches after the game. I remember once against Cardiff away when our bus broke down and Cardiff sent out cars to pick us up. One of those broke down too, and we didn’t kick of until 6pm, three hours later than scheduled. I felt sorry for the band they’d laid on who’d been marching around the Arms Park for three hours in front of an ever-dwindling crowd and were bloody knackered!

I packed in playing in the mid-90s, just before professionalism came in, focusing my attention on helping Ben make it in the game before taking on the Coventry team manager’s job first time around. After a short spell away, I’m back at the Butts in the same role. I would have been a team manager’s worst nightmare as a player because I was always messing about until right before kick-off, but I don’t let the lads get away with anything now. As I tell them, “I am the Law!”