MY LIFE IN RUGBY
THE FORMER BRISTOL, PLYMOUTH & LEICESTER WINGER
IT’s fair to say my first taste of Premiership rugby wasn’t exactly going to plan. I was pitched straight in for Bristol’s first game back up in the big West Country derby against Bath in 2005.
There was a big buildup and a full house at ‘The Mem’, and a boiling hot day all added to the sense of occasion, but I felt out of my depth after a couple of early mistakes and being smashed by Lee Mears.
With about five minutes to go we were behind, but not by much thanks to Jason Strange’s kicking, and I was thinking to myself ‘I better do something here otherwise it might be a while before I get my next chance’. I screamed for the ball having made a run into midfield and just pinned my ears back and ran inside Andy Beattie and one of their props.
I could see the defence rushing across to cover and I knew that if I stepped off my right foot, I’d wrong-foot them. Sure enough, that happened, and Matt Perry was the only player left to beat. As I had all the momentum and he was quite static, I got around him fairly easily to score the match-winning try. The place went mental. It was a real benchmark moment for me because Matt was someone that I grew up watching play for England and he also had close ties with Beechen Cliff, where I went to school in Bath.
I’d actually started my journey to become a pro in Bath’s academy but I don’t think I was ready for it then. I hadn’t matured as an athlete or as a man, so I decided to forget about rugby and go to Plymouth to study for a business degree.
After a year out of the game, I came back and played my socks off in the Plymouth Varsity game. Graham Dawe was scouting at the match and asked me to go along to Plymouth Albion. I thought it was worth giving rugby another go – not for the money, though, as I was only on £200 per month, or something like that. It paid off in other ways though as quite a few of us got moves to the Premiership down the line. During my time at Bristol, we had a good little run, finishing third in the league at one point. But things move on so much and so quickly in the Premiership, if you don’t keep evolving you get left behind and I think that’s what happened with Bristol. Before we knew it, we were in a junkyard battle to avoid the drop.
Even before relegation was confirmed, I’d decided to stay on. I’d put a lot of years into the club so it meant a lot to me and Bristol had given me the opportunity to play at the top level in the first place so there was an emotional attachment and a sense of loyalty and I wanted to help the club fight their way back up. The Champion-ship play-off final defeat to Exeter still haunts me.
A few clubs had been interested in signing me before that season and Leicester came back in. To enjoy the benefits of being at a top club like Leicester and meet the people I did and the friendships I made, was really good.
I really got on well there and thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was tough getting in the team. Originally I think I signed as cover for Alesana Tuilagi, but he didn’t get injured once that season!
From there, I went to Wasps and got a few run outs, but it wasn’t a great time to be at the club because of the financial difficulties and in 2012 I headed to Italy to experience a new culture while playing for L’Aquila.
Believe it or not, I am still playing now, aged 38, as player-coach for Sileby Town RFC. I ran in a hattrick the other day in a narrow win against Northampton OBs, now we’re second in the table and looking at promotion.