Extra sessions with Corbs cost us dear
NEAL Hatley has been a hugely significant influence on me for the best part of ten years, so it was quite amusing, to both of us, that we found ourselves in opposite camps this weekend with London Irish playing Bath.
Hats has just been promoted to head coach at Bath and, with Skivs (George Skivington) leaving for Gloucester, I’ve taken on the forwards coach job at Irish on an interim basis. Hats was my academy manager at London Irish in my first year out of school and he was very clear on what was required to make it in the game. We speak a lot and he has been a phenomenal resource for me as a coach.
Alex Corbisiero was part of that special group and he’s been my best friend in rugby ever since, including being best man at my wedding. But it has to be said we didn’t get off to the best of starts. We shared a room together during the U19 World Cup in Belfast and he accidently trapped my finger in a drawer. I wasn’t best pleased. He refused to apologise so I tried to assert my dominance but he completely man-handled me and that probably set the tone for our relationship.
We shared a house with Tommy Homer and we’d push each other on to a point where, on reflection, it was a bit excessive with all the extras we’d do. We’d work ourselves into a frenzy before first team training sessions to try and make our mark. Unfortunately Corbs and I both had playing careers riddled with injuries and perhaps that played a part.
Everyone talks about being desperate to play and being desperate to be a part of the team, and I certainly was. It was all fun and games at the time but I think, again with the benefit of hindsight, that I got the balance wrong. I didn’t have the mental skills to switch off or disengage from pursuing a first-team spot. When I did play, if I had ten involvements, four or five would be impactful and four or five would be mistakes. I put myself under too much pressure.
I have absolutely no qualms about saying it was a very difficult time for me as a young man when Toby Booth, Hats and Mike Catt told me that there was nothing on the table for me at Irish. It was pretty soul-destroying and led to issues with my sense of self-worth and my identity.
In the space of a year, I’d gone from playing for the Saxons under Stuart Lancaster against Portugal as a 19-year-old in Stockport to not having a Premiership contract, because I’d spent the best part of 18 months injured. I guess the message spread that I was quite injury prone.
As things turned out, going to Bedford in the Championship was a phenomenal experience. I felt I made huge growth as a player while I was there. I performed consistently well, and we narrowly lost to London Welsh in the play-off semi-finals.
Brian Smith had left Irish at the end of my first year to take the England defence job, but he brought me back in his second spell at the club. I’ll never forget going into his office and he had a depth (of talent) chart on his wall listing all the back rowers at the club, and he said, ‘who are you better than?’ What a question! I navigated it pretty well in terms of my response – by then I’d learnt that the snotty-nosed kid who always backed himself can be pretty irritating.
I was over the moon to be back where all my mates were – but the joy only lasted until about game six when I broke my arm. I had a fractured radius, so they decided to plate the arm. Unfortunately when they took the clamp off, which was holding the muscle and flesh away from the bone, they managed to nick the artery in my arm which led to blood spurting everywhere and all sorts of panic. It took an age to heal as a result and a 11-12 week injury turned into four or five months.
When I joined Northampton, they were the current Premiership champions. I was blessed to be sat in a changing room with the likes of Dylan Hartley, Samu Manoa, Ben Foden and Courtney Lawes. With such talent around you, you felt bullet-proof.
We played some fantastic rugby and it was a brilliant place to be. Scoring off the bench on debut at home to Gloucester was a bit of a dream come true. A lot of my wife’s family were raised in Northampton and were there on the night, which added a nice gloss to the experience.
Injuries to lads in my position afforded me more game time than I’d imagined at the outset, and that was a bit of a golden period for me in terms of my form and appearances until I fractured/dislocated my big toe, fielding a kick-off against Scarlets. It was another significant injury, and almost a case of ‘here we go again’.
I thought I came back a better player towards the end of that 2014-15 season and I played Saracens at home in the Premiership semi-final. There were rumours at the time that Billy and Mako Vunipola had booked flights to jet off on holiday straight after that game because they were convinced we were going to win. Sadly, we didn’t perform on the day and lost 29-24.
There was a lot of chat in the changing room after that game about who would make the England World Cup squad. At the end of the season, we all went on a big night out and when I woke up I had several missed calls from Corbs and Wig (Graham
Rowntree) and a voicemail telling me I was in the England squad for the Barbarians game. To be a part of that international environment, albeit briefly, was brilliant.
True to form, my second season at Saints was overshadowed by another serious injury around early March, contract negotiation time. I went to leg tackle Siale Piutau and he ducked so my left arm caught the top of his head. He has a very hard head I have to say. It didn’t feel right at all. Initially, I was told it was akin to a dead leg, but I didn’t sleep a wink that night and ultimately it was discovered I’d suffered two clean fractures.
Saints then director of rugby Jim Mallinder, who I have a very good relationship with, understandably decided to let me go and that’s when the Bristol opportunity arose.
It was an interesting time to be there. They’d spent a long time in the Championship and there was still some issues around playing style. Bristol is an amazing place, though, and I’m really pleased I got to experience playing in the city. I felt very strongly when I left to go and coach at Irish that Bristol would one day be one of the top clubs in Europe.
“I’d learnt that a snotty-nosed kid who always backed himself can be pretty irritating”