Life with the Lions was such a contrast for me
MY LIFE IN RUGBY
NICK POPPLEWELL THE FORMER LIONS, IRELAND, LEINSTER, WASPS AND NEWCASTLE PROP
THE Lions tour to New Zealand in 1993 was the trip of a lifetime, I suppose in rugby terms it was the equivalent of an Olympic gold medal. I was in an Irish team that was struggling for most of the ten years that I was involved so it was just fantastic to be able to play with 14 very complete players and worry about your own game and not have to be concerned about others doing their job.
It sounds demeaning but that was the reality of it. Back then, our tactics with Ireland were to basically get hold of it, kick it away and hope that the opposition would make a mistake.
In the first Lions Test, I packed down in the front row with a couple of Scots, Kenny Milne and Paul Burnell. We got robbed in that match. We had it sewn up, but we got crucified by a decision from the referee, I think it was Paddy O’Brien. He awarded a penalty against Dean Richards and they kicked it in the last few seconds and won 20-18. If you don’t win the first Test on a Lions Tour, you’re not going to win the series. Brian Moore and Jason Leonard came into the side for the second Test and we had a very strong pack – seven Englishmen and me. To beat New Zealand in New Zealand is something I’ll always remember. And what a score: 20-7.
When I look back on my career, the only regret I have is that it took me until my mid-20s to make it to the top. I trained hard all my life but, as a prop, you weren’t really thought about until you were 24/25. A short spell playing for Souths in Australia early in my career had really opened my eyes to the difference in attitude they had there, and in New Zealand, when it came to developing young players. Leinster were fantastic but they were probably 20 years behind, like all other teams in Ireland and the UK, in that regard.
The first of my 51 international caps was against the All Blacks at Lansdowne Road in 1989. I was playing for Greystones and Leinster at the time. It wasn’t a debut to remember, though, as I think I only lasted 18 minutes. Scrummaging with three broken ribs is impossible, no matter how good you think you are. The 1991 World Cup quarter-final against Australia is another match I remember so vividly. The game was as good as over: all we had to do was to kick it to touch. Rob Saunders missed the kick and Michael Lynagh ended up scoring the winning try for them. I was on the far side, because there had been a scrum, and the crowd was deathly quiet and I thought, ‘brilliant, they must have knocked it on or something’. But it was because he’d scored and they were obviously just devastated. This was the biggest game of our lives, and we were within a whisker, and you can say in the simplest of terms we blew it. We were just numb, to play with that intensity wasn’t something we’d done that often, I don’t think I’ve ever run as much in my life, and we were just physically knackered and emotionally drained.
All three tries I scored for Ireland came at World Cups. I got a couple against Zimbabwe before we played Australia, and another against Wales at the tournament in ’95. We got to the quarter-finals in both which was pretty good seeing as it coincided with probably the most unsuccessful era in Irish rugby history. I captained Ireland for the first time in a win against Japan in Bloemfontein and did so again, against Canada in 1997. We won that match, too, and I think I am right in saying I’m the only Irishman to have a 100 per cent record as captain.
Rob Andrew asked me if I wanted to go to Wasps after the Lions tour. I thought it would be my farewell season and I wanted to give English rugby a try. But my career actually came to an end at Newcastle, with us winning the first Premiership in 1998. That was such a quality squad, too many to list here, but I can’t mention Newcastle without mentioning John ‘Bentos’ Bentley. What a character, and what a guy! If ever there was tension or fractions in the dressing room, he knew how to diffuse the situation.
Granted we all made a few grand out of it but we were all there because we wanted to play rugby. To go from helping the old Gosforth club stay in the Second Division to becoming champions of England two-and-a-bit years later really was ‘Roy of the Rovers’ stuff.
About two-thirds of the way through my contract, various injuries got the better of me and I decided to retire. I’d torn my hamstring playing for the Barbarians a couple of years earlier and played on which wasn’t a good idea and it came back to haunt me. I also suffered from plantar fascia, which was horrendous, and I decided enough was enough. Nowadays I’m based in Wexford as a property auctioneer.
“Irish tactics were to get hold of it, kick it away and hope for a mistake”