Did I achieve what I wanted in rugby? Where I grew up, drug addicts, guns, violence was all around. So I don’t need 100 caps to be a success
In a deeply personal interview, Kyle Eastmond on the toll rugby can take
AFTER months of deliberating, Kyle Eastmond is finally ready to share his story. It is his first time sitting down with the media for six years. A guarded character, blessed with a unique talent, who sneaked out of rugby through the back door.
‘I’m a little bit nervous,’ he admits. ‘I probably went through my whole career without my coaches ever actually getting to know me. Sport moves quick. You’re constantly thinking about the next training session, the next game, the next contract. It’s cutthroat. If you’ve dropped a ball, you’re s**t. If you’ve scored a great try, you’re brilliant. No one stops and takes the time out to dig a little deeper.’
Before picking up his nine-year-old son, Luca, from school, Eastmond meets up in a coffee shop in Manchester. Home is now back in the North West, not far from the tough St Mary’s estate where he grew up. He decided to retire at the age of 31, following a contract dispute with Leicester and brief stint back in rugby league, and now spends his time managing his property portfolio.
‘Do I miss playing? I wouldn’t say I do,’ he says. ‘I loved the tactical side of the game. Spending hours sitting down over a coffee with someone like George Ford and looking at the small, tiny details. Looking at how, as a twelve-and-a-half stone player, you defend differently in different areas of the pitch. Studying how Saracens manoeuvre their way around the pitch like a real-life game of chess. A lot of players understand the game in the meeting room or in the huddle, but going out there on the pitch and executing it the way Saracens did was a completely different thing.’
HE adds: ‘I miss having those conversations about the game, which maybe is the reason I’m here, but I don’t miss the life of a professional athlete. It’s not as easy as people make out, because you’re never really you. Listen, I’m not going to sit here and throw stones at the sport I love. That’s not me. Rugby is a brilliant game. It has been great to me and I love it, but you reach a certain stage in life when you’re no longer prepared to compromise on your principles.
‘Rugby’s a game but it’s also a business and an institution. I didn’t want to “play the game” any more and not stand up for what I believe in. You’re basically owned as a rugby player — an asset — and that’s not how I wanted to live my life. Turning a blind eye on things. Good luck to the guys who can do that but you have the choice.
‘Why do you have to wait until the wheels fall off before you retire? Why do you have to wait until you can’t walk? I don’t want my son watching me be owned by an institution. That’s not the idol I want him to have. Everybody has moved on, though. Everybody has moved on and is doing better. Do you get me?’
Eastmond talks about whether he is satisfied with what he achieved in the sport. On the way
home, he calls to revisit his answer. We will come back to that. Among other things, he speaks about Tyson Fury, converting from rugby league, untapped talent in the estates and his love for Bath.
‘If we talk about rugby, Bath is my club,’ he says. ‘Moving down as a 22-year-old, I’d never seen anywhere like that. I’d hardly left Oldham. Never even been to London.
‘I’d play for St Helens and go back to Oldham. Play for England and go back to Oldham. Moving to Bath… wow! I’d never seen big stone buildings like that.
‘I knew I would be able to do it on the field in Bath but I didn’t know what to expect off the field. In the end, some of my best friends come from Bath. Good people.
‘I lived at Olly Barkley’s house for a month having never even met the guy before. Same street as David
Flatman. Good memories there. George Ford, Jonathan Joseph, Semesa Rokoduguni, Anthony Watson, Matt Banahan, the dog Carl Fearns… some team that was.
‘It’s tough for Bath at the moment but you’ve got to respect the young guys like Max Ojomoh and Orlando Bailey.’
Skilful kids, turning up every week when things aren’t going well. They’re getting beat comfortably but these kids keep putting their hand up, doing things outside their remit.
‘Characters like Beno Obano… real people who show themselves and speak up for what they believe in. That’s what the sport needs. Whether it’s next season or the
As kids, we had to walk across the park to check for needles
I love rugby but I didn’t want my son watching me being owned by an institution
season after, this Bath team is going to come good.’
When he comes back to the question of whether he achieved what he wanted to, he says: ‘Maybe people would have looked at me differently if they knew the whole story. Sometimes I felt disrespected if people questioned my efforts. In my head, I would be thinking, “I started down here, you started up there, so don’t question what I’ve put in to be at this table.”
‘Did I achieve what I wanted to in my career? F***ing hell, man, it doesn’t matter if I played once on TV or 100 caps. Where I’m coming from, you don’t need to play 100 caps to be successful.
‘When we were kids, we had to link arms and walk across the park before we played to check for needles. One of the
parents would pick them up so you didn’t fall on them. We’d be kicking the ball around and there were guys we were friends with drinking methadone on the side of the pitch because they couldn’t get any more heroin. Drug addicts, guns, violence, it was all around you.
‘There were a lot of bad times. At 16 you start going to the clubs with family and friends from the estate, but they’re gangsters. They’d say “Kyle, what are you doing here, go home” because they knew I was the only person from our community with an opportunity. They wanted to protect me.
‘There ain’t no rugby club that can show the same love as that estate. If you have no food, next door will give you some. It’s just that when you get stuck in it, it’s hard to get out. My ambition was just to buy my mum a house. I did that as soon as I had the money. Emptied my account. Even when I did, it took her two years to move in because she was so entrenched in the community. Buying Mum a house and helping out my family; that was the pressure I put on myself… not winning 100 caps or 10 trophies.
‘I’m from St Mary’s, Oldham, and I played for England in rugby league and rugby union. That makes me proud and hopefully it inspired other kids on the estate because there’s so much talent there. In the end, I just didn’t want to put that suit on any more. I just wanted to be Kyle.’