Exit from Kingsholm wasn’t about money
GLOUCESTER was, and will always be, my club even though I had some very enjoyable years at Perpignan and Worcester, and my departure from Kingsholm wasn’t as I’d have hoped.
I joined Gloucester’s academy, aged 18, after coming through the mini and junior section of my hometown club, Worcester, who were a few years off from making it to the Premiership.
At that stage I was helping out in the family butcher’s and Christmas was always a really busy time. One year I feigned sickness because my dad, Ian, needed me to help out, but the academy manager got wind of it and rumbled me. It taught me a valuable lesson in life – always be honest with people.
With the squad and the coaches we had at Gloucester, we really should have done better in terms of winning silverware. All we had to show for our talent was one LV=Cup and several near-misses in the league.
As a forward, I can’t think of a better fly-half to run off than Ryan Lamb. His pass was better than anyone I played or trained with – including Cips (Danny Cipriani) and Jonny (Wilkinson).
He also had a pretty good step off his right foot as I found out in an extra defence session organised by Dave ‘The Guru’ Ellis. Dave was annoyed I’d missing a few tackles and told me to stay back after training to do five one-on-ones with Lamby. Lamby completely sent me the wrong way three times in a row but, on the fourth occasion, I decided to second-guess which direction he’d go in and went for it, 100 per cent. I guessed right and nailed him. That wiped the smile off his face!
There were too many topquality players to name them all here but the arrival of Big Les (Vainikolo) added something new to the mix. I’ll take the credit for one of the five tries he scored on his debut at Leeds as I gave him a try-scoring pass. Two of those tries, nobody else in the Premiership scores them. When he was on fire, he was a joy to play with and the quickest player over ten metres in our squad – before his Achilles injury – by a country mile.
Before that opening game of the season at Leeds, we went to Portugal for a pre-season camp. Les, below, had no trouble settling in. After he bought me a cider, I thought it only courteous to offer him one back and he said he’d have a rum and coke. Not wanting to be a cheapskate, I said, ‘double?’ and gave him a cheeky wink, and he replied, ‘No, bro, a jug’! Seeing him dancing around as happy as anything, with a jug of rum and coke in each hand, still brings a smile to my face.
We finished top of the table in back-to-back seasons and were among the best teams in Europe under Dean Ryan, who’s now my boss at Newport Gwent Dragons. Against the mighty Munster, we could and possibly should have won a Heineken Cup quarter-final.
Chris Paterson had kicked something ridiculous like 40 plus kicks in a row but missed three in front of the posts in the first half and we were never able to claw our way back into it.
I think the 2007 Premiership final against Leicester came a little too early for us, as we were still wet behind the ears, but in the years that followed we should have delivered more than we did. Akapusi Qera was the best player in the league and we were full of confidence. The following year, we beat Wasps away to clinch a home semi-final and Lawrence Dallaglio said, ‘see you in two weeks’, alluding to the fact we’d meet again at Twickenham. Our opponents at Kingsholm were Leicester, who’d only just scraped into the top four. I don’t know if it was complacency on our part or not but were pretty poor. Anything that could go wrong, did. Poor Lamby passed to Iain Balshaw and the ball hit the post and Aaron Mauger dived on it to score. Even so, we still found ourselves in front with not much time left after Willie Walker landed a dropgoal. I remember thinking, ‘we’ve been bad but we’re going to get through’, and then Goodey (Andy Goode) hits that drop goal from 40 metres to break our hearts.
It was a travesty that we didn’t get to the final. Had we done so, I think we’d have beaten Wasps again and got revenge for the 2003 final (my first season at the club) when we won the league by 15 points but lost badly in the first-ever Grand Final.
The failure to convert our potential into silverware led to funding cuts but while the strength in depth of the squad diminished, we still managed to make the play-offs in 2010/11, after a dramatic 41-41 draw against Leicester. We lost to Sarries in the semis by a kick. While it was a disappointing end to the season, it had been an enjoyable one for me as stand-in captain for Tins (Mike Tindall), and we had the LV=Cup to show for our efforts after a comprehensive victory in the final over Newcastle.
It was by no means the best Gloucester squad I’d been involved with but the spirit in the group was fantastic; we played hard and partied harder.
I’ve never said anything about the circumstances that led to me leaving Gloucester before, so I’d like to address that here. I got accused by some fans of being a money-grabber after signing for Perpignan, but the truth is I was never offered a contract by Gloucester. Had that been the case, I would probably have never left.
I was due to sit down and have talks but the negotiations kept getting put back and back because I was injured. I was getting understandably nervous about my future and some French clubs had expressed an interest having seen me play well in a very good win against Toulouse. I met with Perpignan at a restaurant overlooking the sea in Cannes. The food was amazing, and the setting wasn’t so bad either.
The only thing nagging at the back of my mind was how moving to France would affect my England chances. I’d won a few caps previously and there was a chance I could win some more but, having turned down a move to the Melbourne Rebels a few years earlier, I didn’t want to retire regretting I hadn’t tried anything new. I’m glad I made the decision I did because had I not done so I wouldn’t have experienced a brilliant couple of years in France.
It was just a bit sad with the way it ended at Gloucester. I had so many good friends there and so many good memories and all I wanted to do was shake hands and leave on good terms. But because I was injured, I never got to have a farewell game. A couple of years later, Gloucester drew Perpignan in the Heineken Cup and I got to have my final run out at Kingsholm which is still the best place in the world to play rugby.
I don’t know if it was muscle memory or what but when I limped off with cramp with ten minutes to go, I headed to the Gloucester bench and was just about to sit down before it dawned on me that I was in the away team!
I’d have liked to have stayed in France for longer, but my wife wanted to get her career back on track after doing a Masters and said that if a London club came in for me, that should be a conversation we should have. A few weeks later Brian Smith was on the phone asking if I wanted to sign for London Irish. Smithy is a crazy bloke but in a nice way. My only beef with him is he made me miss my best mate’s wedding because he wanted us up in Coventry a day earlier than normal for an away game at Wasps. I pleaded with him but he said, ‘mate, just send him a card’. Typically, I broke my thumb in that game!
All through my career I coached at local clubs, and that was something I saw myself doing once I retired from playing. Coventry took a punt on me and within a few weeks I knew coaching was the profession I wanted to be in. I was looking forward to a second season in the Championship when Rory Teague, who I came through the Gloucester academy with, asked me to come over to BordeauxBegles as forwards coach.
The results-driven environment of France’s Top 14 is so much different to what Dean Ryan is trying to create here at the Dragons. He is looking to develop an environment and a team over a number of years that hopefully everyone in the region will be proud of.
“I wasn’t offered another contract by Gloucester so I met Perpignan”