Try-scoring hooker who couldn’t hit a barn door!
WHEN I started out in rugby, I had a few options inside and outside of the game. A place at Sandhurst was one of them, but they all very quickly fell to the wayside when Leicester asked me to sign in 2002. Back then, the landscape was very different to what it is now, you were encouraged to focus 100 per cent on your rugby, whereas now clubs see the benefit of having a more rounded player with interests outside the game. It is something we promote at the Next Phase Academy.
Taking Leicester up on their offer was an easy decision, although Johnno’s (Martin Johnson) mono-brow stare in my direction when I’d thrown yet another lineout two feet over his head was the price I had to pay.
Throwing was an issue for me in the early stages of my career. I remember playing in a 10s tournament as a trial for the England U19s. The coach, Geoff Wappett, pulled me to one side afterwards, and between puffs on his pipe, he said ‘fair play, you can play a bit’. Geoff hadn’t made much effort to speak to any of us, so I was really chuffed he took the time to tell me that. However, the next day, it was time to do some work around the set-piece, and I couldn’t hit a barn door, so that was me done.
It was the same with Leicester. I was top try-scorer for the U21s in my first season – not bad for a hooker – but Deano pulled me in and said, ‘listen, I need someone who can throw straight, I don’t care about how many tries you score’. As a young fella at Tigers, surrounded by seasoned Premiership players and internationals, one bad throw at an important time could cost you your place and it would be a long slog to get back in.
Chutes (George Chuter) and I were competing for the position and he was particularly resilient; I think he missed one game through injury the whole time I was there, so I was on the bench a lot or playing A-team rugby.
Relishing the confrontational side, I probably played my best rugby on Tuesdays at Tigers. In my first season, we were doing some lean-on scrums and in the opposition front row Julian White was on the tighthead. He changed his position and came straight across me and the young academy loosehead I had alongside me just disintegrated. I had my head between my ankles thinking something is going to pop here. Fortunately, it wasn’t my back, just my ribs.
At the beginning of my second season, I was named in the squad for the opening Premiership match but suffered a bad leg break in training which put me out for the season. I got back fit in time to go to New Zealand and play Premier Club rugby in Wellington sometimes against Hurricanes players filtering down into the club teams, like Jerry Collins, Cory Jane and Thomas Waldrom.
The standard of rugby was so good and if I hadn’t developed some foot-work, I’d have been cut in half. It was a great experience and I came back full of confidence and broke into the first team in that third season.
I was a bit of an individual back when individualism wasn’t as celebrated as much as it is now. I asked questions of coaches and tested their patience. My time at Leicester came to an end after five years. The year I left, Cockers (Richard Cockerill) stepped up to a more senior coaching role and he brought in Mefin Davies and Benjamin Kayser, both internationals. I should have taken the option to do another year and ridden the storm but I thought maybe a change would do me good.
At Wasps, I was behind Raphael Ibanez, Joe Ward and Rob Webber. They were all good players and the team was winning most weeks. When it got to the week of the semi-finals, us fringe players were told we didn’t have to come into the club anymore. We shook hands and apart from coming in for a bit of S&C work I thought that was me done as a Wasps player as I’d already signed for London Irish for the following season.
I went to my local club’s endof-season and had a few beers. A bit worse for wear I got a phone call the next morning from Geech (Ian McGeechan) telling me Raffa had a back spasm and as Rob was away with England Sevens, I was needed on the bench for the big game against Bath. So I’ve rocked up and done the whole, ‘don’t breathe on anyone, get outside and start sweating it out’ routine. About 15 minutes in, Joe Ward got a neck spasm and I ended up playing 65 minutes in a Premiership semi-final hungover. Geech gave me a pat on the back afterwards, saying ‘fair play for stepping in’ and he asked me about staying on, but I was already headed up the road. Raffa and Joe were fit for the following week and I was travelling reserve for the final.
At Irish I was also privileged to play with some more great players and characters. I joined the same year as Chrissy Hala’ufia. I played against him for Wasps the year before, in the A League final. He was playing for Quins and you didn’t know he was on the pitch. A year later, he was tearing up trees every week. Coaching Chrissy later in my career was also fun!
At that point, my set-piece started to overtake my loose play. Knowing I wasn’t quite as mobile as I was, I had to think more about the game. It’s a good job I did because in the February, with a couple of years left to run on my contract, I took an innocuous off-the-ball blow to my knee and it immediately swelled up. I soldiered on until the end of the season but in the summer the surgeon told me I had a big hole in my femur and that was me finished playing.
Lyn Jones gave me my first senior coaching role, looking after the London Welsh scrum the first year they were in the Premiership; it ended up being statistically the best scrum in the league, so I was proud of that. I also have Lyn to thank for reconnecting me with Simon Amor, who I’d played with at Wasps, and he asked me across to London Scottish where he gave me free rein to build a nasty forward pack, and I ended up doing the defence as well.
Guys like James Phillips would maul and brawl and create space for others outside. We had a great group of lads who all bought into a style which continued to evolve to remain at the top of the curve. We took some big scalps but after a close defeat at Nottingham, the guys who’d come in to replace Simon wanted to change our style, and I disagreed, was overruled and left. I left them in third and that’s where they finished. I kept doing scrum coaching for Irish and also had the opportunity to do two games with Russia in the Nations Cup, which was a lot of fun.
By now, London Welsh were back in the Premiership and struggling. I knew about the financial problems the club had and was hesitant to get involved when Rowland Phillips asked me at first. But when I saw we had Leicester at Welford Road coming up, I said, ‘I’ll do it’. We got well beaten but at half-time we were winning 10-7. In the second half, a streaker ran on the pitch and Chrissy nailed him; he also nailed Lawrence Pearce and got himself a red card.
“I learnt a lot about myself... I was too boneheaded at times”
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for me or the club in my next role at Rosslyn Park. I learnt a lot about myself in the way I handled players. I was too bone-headed at times and I was the wrong fit for that role. So, it was back to London Welsh, now back in the Championship, and we ended up going on a good run.
The club’s money problems refused to go away, however, and we were unable to build on the momentum of a top-five finish the season before. It took a temporary licence from the RFU – and a lot of luck with injuries as we had only 22 players – for us to be able to fulfil our festive fixtures. We beat London Scottish with a bonus point and then went up to Leeds and got a losing bonus point. Sadly, the plug was then pulled on the club by the powers that be.
I look back at my playing and coaching career and I think the people I built good relationships with appreciated my honesty. The trouble is, not everyone can handle the truth.
I’d still back myself to do a top job but I’m enjoying doing what I do now. With the Next Phase Academy, where we combine further education with sport, we place each student at the centre of their own programme and support them on their pathway to a career in sport. Our students love sport but also have other interests, and we want to support those interests to produce more rounded individuals better equipped for both sports careers and life after sport.