MY LIFE IN RUGBY
THE FORMER GLOUCESTER, LEEDS AND BRISTOL FULL-BACK
Every time I ran out at Kingsholm as a Gloucester player it was a special feeling, but the last few weeks of the 2007/08 season, when we made it to the Premiership final, stand out above all others.
I’d been loaned out to Pertemps Bees up until Christmas which was disappointing at the time but it enabled me to build my confidence back up and I made a good impression on my return. It’s incredible to think that we put 50 points on Saracens in the semi-final. Leicester were too strong at Twickenham but to be involved in such a big game is something I’ll never forget.
Rugby started with Bicester U7s and James Forrester was my friend and team-mate from there right the way through secondary school and then at Gloucester, until I left for Leeds. In our final year at St Edward’s School in Oxford we were coached by Ben Ryan. His favourite ‘out-there’ move was kneeing the ball over the top of the defence instead of kicking it; we tried it once and scored.
Ben helped get me in at Harlequins, and I played for their U21s in my gap year. I had a good game against Gloucester and they approached me while I was studying Geography at Swansea University, eventually signing me on an academy contract. It took me nine years to finish my degree, I spent that much time going back and forth between Swansea and Gloucester!
I was expecting to be released by Gloucester after my second year was written off by a shoulder injury, but Nigel Melville rang to tell me I was staying on. I was lucky that Thinus Delport had been selected to go to the 2003 World Cup with South Africa. I deputised for him while he was away and when he came back he got injured and that gave me a good crack at it.
It was during those early days that I earned the nickname ‘rope’ – because of my slight frame. Initially I was called string by one of the frontrowers but that got upgraded to rope when I’d been on one of my bulking up periods. The way I played, doing the basics at the back, would be considered old-school now, though I always liked to think my positioning was pretty good.
Leaving such a tightknit squad was tough after so long but I spent three enjoyable years at Leeds, even if we were relegated from the Premiership in my first season after just two wins. We bounced back under Neil Back and Andy Key and then survived the following year after late wins over London Irish and Worcester.
The good thing about Backy and Kiwi was that they were brutally honest. Man for man we knew we had the poorest squad on paper in the league, but they made sure we worked harder than anyone else and had the highest of standards. Seru Rabeni was absolutely phenomenal for us. I have never seen a more destructive player; you could see the fright in opposition eyes when he was on his game.
After a move to the Dragons fell through I was left without a club and decided to move into surveying which I was doing a masters in at the time. However, I missed rugby too much and Liam Middleton gave me a route back in at Bristol. We won the league quite easily but lost in the semifinals to Cornish Pirates. That still haunts me.
I started making the transition into coaching, at Christ College in Brecon, towards the end of my second and final season at Bristol and for the last few years I’ve been involved with Hartpury, initially as backs coach with the U18s but now my remit covers the whole rugby set-up.