How a few beers put us on the right road
SOMETIMES in rugby it takes a few beers to put the world to rights and to get everyone heading in the same direction and that was definitely true during my time at Nottingham. As a rugby group we decided to make sure we had fun off the field as a distraction from the financial problems the club had run into and to go out for drinks after matches regardless of the result. Once we did that, there was no stopping us, I think we only lost one game in 15 or something like that and finished second in the table to Northampton in 2008.
Beating Exeter 24-14 at Meadow Lane was probably the highlight, and it came on the back of a student night session in midweek, where we were joined by some of the England cricket team who due to play in a Test at Trent Bridge. We gave them some tickets for the Chiefs game and they came and watched. We won 24-14 after playing out of our skins, and afterwards they were saying to us they couldn’t believe we could play like that after being out drinking into the small hours only a few days earlier.
I had two spells at Nottingham and played 169 times for them, but my first club in the UK was Leicester Tigers. Harry and Charlie Thacker’s dad, Troy, was over in Australia scouting for Leicester as Oakham School and Leicester Grammar were on tour there. On the back of seeing me play against Oakham, I was offered an academy trial. If truth be told, I had no idea they were one of the biggest clubs in Europe and half of me thought I was joining Leicester Lions!
As there was no professional side in Perth at the time, to play professionally I’d have had to have gone to the other side of the country. But I had British passport because my dad is from Liverpool – my grandad (a reserve team footballer for Liverpool!) brought the family over after he’d been stationed in Perth for the Malayan War – so I thought I might as well give Leicester a go. Nearly 20 years later, I am still here.
In Australia, the rugby was skills based rather than tuck it up the jersey and run straight and hard; there was a bit of that but I had a lot to learn when I came to the UK and I had a lot of physical development to do because I’d never touched weights before. In my first weights session at Leicester I was trying to lift 100 kilos, and I was competing against a guy who went to the NFL, a guy called Neil Baxter, who was a freak of an athlete. He was repping out 130 kilos no bother whereas I couldn’t lift 100 kilos off the bar. In rugby sessions though, I could hold my own in contact because I had natural strength.
I learnt how to play rugby really at Leicester. England had just won the World Cup so needless to say as an Aussie I got a load of stick. I made my first team debut against the Barbarians after an injury to Adam Balding opened the door, and I got a two-year contract after playing quite well. I came off the bench in a Premiership match against Wasps but I spent most of my time playing A team rugby, during which time we won two A League titles, as well as spending the best part of three seasons on loan at Doncaster.
While Jon Boden and I were enjoying ourselves up at Doncaster, some of the Leicester lads were on loan at Nottingham. They were very positive about the place so it didn’t take me long to make my mind up when they offered me a deal. Playing under Hammo (Craig Hammond) was great and we had a really good pack at that time. Glenn (Delaney, DoR) was never afraid to try out new moves and some of the back-row plays we had up our sleeve were weird and wonderful – like the NFL-style ball up the jersey switch play. Funnily enough, me and Hammo are due to move to the same village in the same week (any time soon!). He’s a fitness fanatic and no doubt he’ll be putting me through his paces in the home-gym that he’s put together.
Moving to Bristol was driven by the desire to give it another go in the Premiership. Bristol were in the Championship at the time but were favourites to go back up so it was a viable option. I suppose my timing was unfortunate in a way because the league structure was changed that season. We finished top and in any other season that would have been good enough for us to be promoted but they’d introduced play-offs for that season and Exeter beat us over the two legs. I played in both. We probably left a couple of tries out there in the first game and in the second, at our place, they heavens opened and they played to the conditions really well. Gareth Steenson kicked the leather off the ball and landed a drop goal from halfway; it just seemed like everything went against us that night. We missed out again the following year and after a third season at Bristol, I decided to rejoin Nottingham. Bristol hadn’t offered me a new contract so it was quite sweet to go there later that year and put 60 points on them!
Glenn re-signed me but I never got to play for him again as he got a well-deserved opportunity to go to London Irish. Martin Haag came in and he’s a very good coach, too. We did really well in my first season back, reaching the play-off semi-finals, but after that a lot of the experienced players left and I was made captain of what was largely a new-look squad.
Two concussions in quick succession, against Ealing and then Leeds, effectively led to my playing days coming to an end at the age of 32. They were only six days apart and the second one had prolonged symptoms that lasted for a while. That allowed me to focus on life outside of rugby and I gained experience in financial services so when a job offer in that field came in, I decided to turn down Nottingham’s two-year contract offer and call it a day instead. I did continue to play locally for Southwell at first and then West Bridgford but now I am properly retired, although I did have one last game for Bristol legends v Gloucester legends in memory of Jack Adams in 2021.
“Bristol hadn’t offered me a contract so it was sweet to go and put 60 points on them”