‘Second-best in the world, but on bench’

SUPER Sid Going did us proud as a family, all right, he and his brothers Ken and Brian really put us on the map. Sid was my uncle and his kids have now got grandad’s dairy farm in the Bay of Islands, the area where Captain Cook sailed in. As you can probably imagine, a rugby ball was always being thrown about and I started playing for the famous Mid-Northern club, from the small town of Hukerenui, to the north of Whangarei, while I was still at school. Sid and Ken were two of the five All Blacks that the club has produced but I ended up playing 34 games for Hong Kong!

After moving to Hamilton to study at university, I started playing for Waikato. There I was, at 18 years old, playing with legends like Richard Loe and John Mitchell. Warren Gatland was the hooker and we had a great squad, winning the Ranfurly Shield off Auckland. Mitch was captain. He’s hard as nails, a great bloke and a real character off the field. He taught us all the Irish singalong songs that he’d picked up after he’d been over there playing for a bit. It was fun times.

Attracted by the bright lights and opportunities that Hong Kong had to offer, I went there for an off-season which turned into three. I had a job in finance and accommodation lined up and when I got there, the place blew me away. I spent the next few years alternating between there and South Africa, where I spent a bit of time playing for a club near Durban called Empangeni, and New Zealand. I was actually in South Africa when the World Cup was on in ’95 so that was an experience. I went to the semi-final between South Africa and France in Durban, the game where they had to sweep a deluge of water off the pitch, and the final. It was pretty cool being there at the time, you could tell something had changed in the country. It changed the whole vibe. Natal Sharks wanted me to stay and play for them but I went back to Hong Kong, where I’d met Amanda, my wife.

By then, rugby had just gone pro. I wanted to do something different and put the feelers out and John Gallagher (the former All Blacks full-back) got me to Harlequins from Hong Kong, in the late 90s. I wished I’d kept the house that we bought in Richmond, it would be worth a fortune now, a lot more than I ever made from playing rugby. I was only there for two years, and it was hard to get a look-in because they had a settled team. So I had a year at London Welsh, which was good fun. I think we ended up second in what is now the Championship. Clive Griffiths was coach and he’s a real character with a twinkle in his eye. I enjoyed playing for him, he’s a confidence-building coach.

Sale offered me decent money so then we moved up to Manchester. Amanda was able to quit her job and we started a family. All the boys came around to our house for a party to wet the baby’s head when our daughter was born. She’s now in her final year at Manchester Uni so that shows you how much time has passed.

They were really good times at Sale under the Jim Mallinder-Steve Diamond tag team. Jim was a great coach. He used to look after me and you had license to run the ball. As long as you were going forward, he didn’t mind you giving it a go. I covered for Jason Robinson a lot when he was away with England. Jim was funny, he used to say with a smirk on his face, ‘Vaughan, you’re the second-best full-back in the world, but Jason is back, so you’re on the bench’. You can take that as a player, especially as he always got me on for my match fee.

After that, we went off to France. I was getting on and fancied a lifestyle change. I thought Beziers would be my last club but I ended up going to Bristol and Northampton. It was so funny playing over there in France. The refs were all ‘homers’ and you could see the faces on the guys when we went away, they were just not up for it, their faces would drop as soon as we got off the bus. But when they were home, they’d be headbutting lockers and slapping each other in the face. They are 10-foot tall and bullet-proof when they’re playing in front of the home fans. Down in that part of the world, you were almost a celebrity, it is real rugby country.

Bristol brought a few of us old boys back – Mark Regan, Gareth Llewellyn … people like that. We’d been signed to keep Bristol in the Premiership and we did our job. The following season Bruce Reihana stuffed his knee up and Paul Grayson, at Northampton, asked me if I could get out of my contract. On the Tuesday I was training with Bristol and by the Saturday I was playing for Northampton. It all happened so quickly. By then, I was the oldest player in the Premiership. Not quite as old as Jimmy Gopperth is now but a few greys were starting to show and the legs were starting to slow. I think I was the ripe old age of 37, that’s what it said in the programme anyhow.

It was a nice way for me to finish off. After that, I flung my boots in the bin. The lads asked me what my next club was and I said, ‘Waitangi Golf Club’. I’d love to do it all again. Rugby took me around the world, I met my wife through rugby and some great people. Manchester may get some stick, because of the weather, but out of all the places where I played rugby, that was probably my favourite. Our family started there, there was a great bunch of boys in the squad and we played some good rugby.

A lot comes back to Jim as a coach. More fool the opposition for kicking the ball away, our backline really used to carve some teams up. My job was to run the ball back as hard as I could so the forwards had less distance to cover. It was a nice way to play and we had some success, too, finishing second in the league. It was just a shame that Newcastle beat us right at the death in the 2004 Powergen Cup final.

My son always asks me who I’m supporting when the rugby is on TV and I still have a soft spot for Sale, they are still my No.1 club even though I don’t get over to support them much in person. The trouble is the traffic across the Pennines on a Friday night is a nightmare. That’s two hours of your life you won’t get back.

At every club I’ve been at, I’ve bought a house in the area and done it up as a renovation project. And that’s ended up being my business, post-rugby. Living in Harrogate, I mainly do up barn conversions in North Yorkshire. I guess the farm boy is still in me. I’m an apprentice Yorkshireman though, I’ll never qualify as a full-blown one!

“Sid Going did us proud as a family - he and his brothers really put us on the map”