MY LIFE IN RUGBY

SIMON EMMS THE FORMER LONDON WELSH, BRISTOL, AND NORTHAMPTON PROP

ALMOST losing my leg in a hit and run in Edinburgh at the age of 20 kept me out of the game for 18 months and reinforced my belief in just how important it was to have an alternative career to fall back on, which in my case was surveying.

I’d only been in Edinburgh four or five hours when the accident happened, the Thursday before we were due to watch Wales play Scotland in March 1995.

Instead, I spent the next ten days in hospital and had four operations. I was at Uni and playing for Llandovery at the tie so to go on and get paid to play the sport I loved was amazing after that injury.

After graduating, I got a job in London and played for London Welsh under Clive Griffiths, before I moved to the West Country to work for an international property consultancy and managed to combine working and playing for Bristol under Bob Dwyer. It was hard to combine the two and study while the other lads were out playing golf etc, but the sacrifices were worth it.

At Llanelli, the club that I’d supported from my childhood, I didn’t play as much as I’d have liked but I managed to gain my chartered status while I was there and in 2000 moved back to the West Country with Bath. However Llanelli did a U-turn and withheld my registration which delayed my debut. I effectively bought myself out of my contract in the end so that I would be registered in time to play in Europe. Munster at the Rec wasn’t exactly an easy one to start!

Bath was a wonderful place to play rugby and the social scene was great. Playing in the inaugural Premiership Final in 2001 is certainly an experience that stands out if not for the result (Leicester won 22-10). I didn’t feature much in my last season due to an ankle injury.

I joined Orrell who had designs on winning promotion to the Premiership and had assembled a halfdecent side under Ross Reynolds – but once the owner Dave Whelan decided to withdraw his support a lot of us followed Ross to Rotherham who, themselves, ran into financial difficulties and we weren’t paid for a couple of months.

I decided it was time to go back to work for some stability. Before I started at Lambert Smith Hampton in the West End, Gloucester contacted me and asked if I would join them as short-term injury cover for Phil Vickery. Once that deal was over I took up my post in London and played briefly for London Welsh again.

I thought that would be the end of my days in the Premiership but I ended up spending four more years at Northampton, playing with some great players at another great club

I was very fortunate to have the career I did, meeting some great people along the way – but I would encourage all aspiring professionals to plan for life after rugby as it doesn’t last forever!

After a spell as player-coach at Ampthill my focus is now purely on my role as a property director with Howard Tenens in Gloucestershire, a property, logistics and supply chain specialist, and my young family.