Full-back Jon Callard remembers his Calcutta Cup winner in 1994
WHEN people ask about the last-minute kick that won England the Calcutta Cup in 1994 and what was going through my mind at the time, I can honestly say I don’t have a clue, I was purely ‘in the moment’. What I do know is that it was a fairly routine kick, from in front and about 42-43 yards out.
I had a process where I tried to listen to the sound of the ball as I made contact, and on this occasion, I remember hearing a slight splat instead of a pop. Looking back at the kick now, I hit it outside right, which I’d never done before in my life, and it came back in with the draw. I only wish I could hit my golf shots like that!
A fortnight later, we played Ireland and I hit the woodwork three times and probably deserved to get dropped for the final matches against France and Wales. However, my philosophy has always been about embracing challenges and learning from the inevitable lows you get in life: it is not how you get knocked down it is how you get back up that’s important.
Moving to Bath from Newport in my late teens was certainly an eye-opening experience. I wanted to join the top club in the land and it was great to be surrounded by so many fabulous players who made the game look so easy. As one of the few non-internationals, I did not have any credit in the bank and the fear factor of not wanting to let my team-mates down drove me to make the best of my ability. The level of training, first under Tom Hudson and then Ged Roddy, was something I’d never encountered before.
A couple of years into my Bath career I was contemplating an offer to move to Bristol because I was struggling to get a game as Webby (Jonathan Webb) was the incumbent England full-back at the time. I found myself driving to places like Chipping Sodbury, via the bookies if David Trick was with me, for third-team fixtures. Nigel Redman heard about it and he pointed out to me that if I went to Bristol I’d only play against Webby two or three times a season whereas if I stayed at Bath I could go directly up against him and challenge him for his place three times a week. Taking the challenge on rather than walking away really resonated with me and, looking back, it helped develop me as a player.
Webby wasn’t one to use expletives but he threw down his boots and said ‘thank **** for that’, or words to that effect, in the changing room after we came from behind to beat Saracens and claim a hat-trick of Courage League titles in 1992/93. I’d played on the wing that day and scored twice, but his decision to retire that day allowed me to play fullback on a regular basis. I also managed to wrestle the goal-kicking from Stuart Barnes after I kicked eight from eight against Northampton and then went on a great run where I couldn’t miss.
It wasn’t always that way though. Jack Rowell once said early on in my Bath career that I’d never kick for the club again after I missed a boatload in a defeat to Saracens. Brilliant motivator that he was, he knew how to push people’s buttons. Everyone told me that playing in a Cup final with Bath was an unbelievable experience, and they weren’t wrong. The support and adulation that the great city had for its team, after we beat Gloucester by a record score in my first final in 1990, made a big impression on me and was another reason I stayed where I was. I was lucky enough to experience four more domestic Cup finals and one in Europe. Getting passes from Jerry Guscott were as rare as hen’s teeth so I was as surprised as anyone that he put me in for the decisive try against Brive in the 1998 Heineken Cup final. Jerry used to say to me that if I wanted a pass I’d have to start running in front of him, because I wouldn’t be able to catch him up. It was true because he was so quick. It wasn’t a planned move, just something that happened. For me, that was the special thing about that Bath team – the ability to adapt to the different circumstances. I’d pretty much hung up my boots by then and was starting out in coaching. Fate is a funny thing.
Victor Ubogu was right when he said to me, ‘you can’t be a coach and a player in the modern era’. In any case, we had two fantastic individuals in Matt Perry and Iain Balshaw waiting in the wings, and they were four times the player I was, so I decided it was time to focus on coaching.
They say that there are only two types of coaches – ones who’ve been sacked and ones who are waiting to be sacked. I think when I resigned from Bath, half the clubs in the Premiership had dispensed with the services of their head coach before the season was out. From the low of losing my job at Bath came the high of winning the Powergen Cup with Phil Davies and Leeds. I’d first come across Phil when I was a little 18-year-old full-back with Newport, and he was a huge No.8 for Llanelli. He called me a chopsy so-and-so and gave me a little clip around the ear. Fifteen years later I go and work for him and he does it again!
During my time with the RFU I was involved with England for 62 Tests, went to a World Cup and helped to set up a strong player pathway. To this day, I am just a servant to the players. All I am interested in is making them the best that they can be.
Rugby is in the blood, it’s the itch I’ve got to scratch and now I’m enjoying myself in my role as kicking coach at Sale. I love the ambition of the club and what it is trying to achieve.
“Getting passes from Jerry were rare as hen’s teeth ”