LIFE IN RUGBY
THE FORMER NEW ZEALAND, ENGLAND AND HARLEQUINS CENTRE
Three years after being rejected by Kent at an U19 trial I found myself playing for the All Blacks.
I don’t think anybody likes to be told they weren’t good enough on the day, but things happen for a reason, and it just so happened that there were a couple of Kiwi lads at Blackheath where I was paying, and they said their club back home needed a centre. I was a 10 or full-back then but thought, sod it, let’s travel 12,000 miles and give it a go!
After two weeks in New Zealand, my club coach came up to me and said, ‘mate, you’re not fit enough, my job isn’t to get you fit, my job is to make you a better rugby player. So I suggest you start training at lunchtime or on a night.’ So that’s what I did. It was a totally different mindset.
Within six weeks of playing for Western Suburbs I got into the Wellington squad. While I was there, we did the double – winning the Provincial Championship and the Ranfurly Shield – and played some great attacking footy. It was very easy for me and a real joy to be in that team because all I had to do was pass the ball into the bread basket for our wingers who’d beat most people one-on-one.
I’ve never hidden the fact I haven’t got an ounce of New Zealand blood in me, but I wasn’t going to turn down the All Blacks when the opportunity arose. Somehow, they produced a Kiwi passport for me and I swore to be a good Kiwi on the Holy Bible.
My first game was against Fiji, but my Test debut came against Romania in Bucharest. It was a bleak and dour country and I remember vividly seeing about 40 people queuing up outside a shop for an egg each. After that game we landed in Paris. It was a real contrast of lifestyle.
We won the first Test in Toulouse, but the coach decided to make a few changes and I went to the bench, not that I had to wait long to come on as Philippe Dintrans laid out Bernie Fraser after about four minutes. France were hell-bent on revenge in the return match in Paris and it was the most physical – and fastest game – that I have ever played in, it was pretty brutal. On returning to the UK,
The Telegraph’s John Mason told me that I could potentially double up and play for both New Zealand and England. I think I was the first and the last person to do that. Ironically the first time I was picked by England was for the tour back to New Zealand. Murray Mexted, a team-mate of mine at Wellington, told me that the usual rules would apply – cut back inside and he’d be waiting!
Playing for New Zealand and then England was like chalk and cheese at the time. With England there was very little faith in what was going on and the culture wasn’t great. Everyone thought that if you had one average game let alone a poor one you were going to get the heave-ho. Coach Martin Green was much maligned but, bless him, he did try and change things, and he was the first person to bring in a fitness coach, Tom McNab.
I played every minute of every game at the World Cup in 1987 but, for whatever reason, Geoff Cooke, who had come in to coach the side after we bowed out at the quarterfinals, didn’t think my face fitted and my run in the England side came to an end after 12 caps.
One career highlight was still to come though, Harlequins beating Bristol to win the John Player Cup in 1988. We won it in the right way, playing brilliant rugby. Some of the tries scored were unbelievable, the last one started on our 22. We were better at one-offs than over the course of a season because Harlequins were Harlequins in those days.