MY LIFE IN RUGBY
FORMER ORRELL AND LEEDS HOOKER
OUR celebrations lasted well into the night when we beat Bath to lift the Powergen Cup in 2005. Me and Richard Parks got a lift home from a policeman who spotted us walking the streets of Leeds in our dishevelled suits at 7.15 on the Sunday morning.
I’d come off the bench for the last 10 minutes or so and to get the chance to run out at Twickenham, in an occasion like that, was just brilliant. Those were great days to be a Leeds player.
I’d started off life as a tight-head prop at Orrell, making my debut against Bath at Central Park, Wigan RL’s old ground, in April 1996. I was only 90 kilos (14st 1lb) at the time, so it was a real baptism of fire. We lost 44-11.
Colts coach Colin Nicholson was a big influence at Orrell. He was just so enthusiastic and put that fire in your belly, while Sammy Southern and Neil Hitchin were also good sounding boards for my switch to hooker.
After two seasons of first-team rugby, Orrell went into administration and that’s when I moved across to ‘the dark side’ – Yorkshire! Phil Davies had built a really good culture and there was a talented group of hard-working players at the club.
Leeds were in the old National One when I joined but it was clear they were going places. We won more than we lost and the atmosphere was really good. It was at the end of my second season that we won promotion to the Premiership for the first time.
A serious back injury kept me out for the first few months and it wasn’t until January 2001 before I made my top-flight debut and the first of 95 Premiership appearances.
I may not have made one as it turns out: a couple of years ago Phil told me that they were close to getting rid of me because they didn’t think I’d recover. To play over 200 times for Leeds, nearly half of them in the Premiership, was a real privilege especially as it coincided with the club’s best days. How I’d love for them to come back but I can’t see it happening somehow.
The Premiership was daunting at first but beating Bath on the first day gave us the self-belief that we had it in us to compete with the best teams.
At the time I was battling with Matt Holt and Luffers (Mark Luffman) for the hooker’s jersey. When Ronnie (Mark Regan) came along I was worried my chances would be limited, as he’d come off the back of a Lions tour and was a current England international.
However, I still got plenty of games, especially during the 2007 World Cup. It was great to play Heineken Cup rugby and experience going to places like Perpignan and Toulouse and to stand on the same pitch as the great Jonah Lomu, when we played Cardiff Blues, is something I’ll never forget. That’s the only time I’ve ever been star-struck in a rugby match.
My playing days came to an end after a scrum collapsed in a Challenge Cup match against Bourgoin. The pain was unbelievable, it was as if someone had poured boiling water down my arm. There were only five minutes left in the game and we had a lineout on our own 5m line. I tried to throw in but my arm just flopped down to the side.
After the game I ran in and lay on the physio bed, saying ‘there’s something not right’. Three days later I woke up from the operation with the doctor telling me that was it, my playing days were over. They’d had to fix a badly bulging disc in my neck. A few millimetres either way and it could have been a lot more serious.
It was a tough period, especially as Jenny had to return early from maternity leave to help pay the bills. That’s why I stress to the students at Queen Ethelburga’s, where I am head of sport, the importance of a good education – so you have something to fall back on if things go wrong.