Bright eager to team up with eldest son Bailey
MARK Bright is still playing Championship rugby at the age of 44 and has no plans to retire any time soon with his son now on the cusp of the Richmond first team.
The New Zealand-born No.8 moved to England in 2006 when he joined Redruth, moving on to London Scottish, Ealing and now Richmond. He also appeared for England Sevens at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Bright finished joint top try scorer in the Championship last season with 17 and despite nursing a 50 per cent rupture in his bicep, he has three tries so far in this campaign having played in all nine of Richmond’s games in both the league and cup.
“I found out about the injury in August, so I’ve been playing with that for the last two and a half months,” he said. “My surgeon said there’s no difference in recovery time if I get it done now or until it fully snaps, so the operation will be done when that happens or if I make it until the end of the season.”
Bright puts his longevity in the second tier down down to luck... by avoiding serious injuries and some pre-seasons along the way when travelling back from New Zealand.
He added: “I haven’t had any major injuries throughout my career, and have only had one surgery. I’m also lucky to have missed some pre-seasons – no player enjoys those.
“I’m still enjoying and my eldest boy Bailey has moved to Richmond colts and this is his last year, so hopefully he can play some men’s footy next year and we can play together in the team.
“If I play a few more games for Richmond I’ll hit 50 appearances, so that’s the next goal. If I get to a point where I’m not performing and the coach tells me, I’ll drop down but I want to keep playing at some level.”
Richmond are eighth in the Championship and Bright says inconsistency is their biggest downfall.
“It’s been up and down. We had a good opportunity at Pirates first up but we mucked that up. We had Caldy at home and shot out to a 26-3 lead and ended up losing; then we were down 33-12 against Bedford but won 36-33. We’ve played well in parts but have fallen off the next week, so it’s about finding consistency and keeping momentum in games.
“We want to be in the top half of the table and win the majority of our home games and pick up as many as we can away from home. Everyone wants to go out and win every game but you’ve got to be realistic when it comes to who and where you’re playing.”