Scotland ticket was too good to resist
ANY new ‘foreign’ player playing for Scotland had to prove themselves by singing Flower of Scotland alone at the front of the team bus on the way back from training, which was quite a scary thing to do because you knew you had to do it all over again the next day if you messed up any of the words. Thankfully, it was second time lucky for me – Tim Visser took seven attempts. I think he still holds the record!
I’d played England U21s but, for me, the drive to go to Scotland was it gave me the opportunity to play at the highest level possible. Having had a taste of life in the Premiership in my five years at Leeds and playing in front of big crowds, I just wanted more of that and Glasgow offered me regular Heineken Cup rugby and the chance to qualify for Scotland on residential grounds. When that’s offered to you, it is hard to turn down when you’re playing in the Championship with Doncaster.
Doncaster is my hometown club and where it all started for me. We lived about a mile away from the ground and I followed my brother down there, aged six or seven through to 16, when I joined the Leeds academy, managed by Stuart Lancaster.
Before my first full Premiership start at Leicester, against Julian White, Mark Regan told me he’s a big lad and he’s good but he’ll tire. But I remember thinking a good way into the match, ‘I’m not sure he’s tired yet’. It was in the days when you only had one guy on the bench and my back-up wasn’t properly fit. It was a tough day at the office. He was renowned for being a tough guy and there were a few punches thrown. I stood toeto-toe with him and didn’t go down which helped me earn the respect of the lads but I did have a black swollen ear for a few weeks!
We had a lot of big characters in that Leeds squad, none more so than Ronnie (Regan), who would regularly have us in stitches. The one line I remember best is when he was trying to change the menu options at The Arc in Headingley before we went there for a team meal, saying he wanted proper English grub not foreign food, and suggested ‘Lasagne or something like that’. He got properly ribbed for that. There was never a dull moment with him.
In 2010/11, I went back to Doncaster but this time as a fully-fledged first-team player. During that season Italian scrum coach Massimo Cuttitta, who is sadly no longer with us, took me under his wing and helped me transition from loosehead to tighthead. He was a legend of a bloke who would always give you a ring to see how you were getting on, and it was through him I heard about the Havre coaching job, where I am now, as he knew Ludovic Mercier who was involved with the club.
Sean Lineen, one of the Glasgow coaches, had gone to watch a Bedford back rower in a game against us, but we killed them in the scrum and he asked to Massimo who I was. That’s how the move to Scotland came about and I had a good first year-and-a-half before I got a really bad shoulder problem. It took a while to get it diagnosed, and I had three operations before I went to Manchester to see Lennard Funk, a renowned shoulder surgeon who sorted me out. However, one game into my comeback a medical condition came to light and in total I was out for 22 months. In that time, the laws about the scrum engagement had changed so it was hardly ideal for my career! But I fought back and ended up getting my Scotland caps in two warm-up games before the 2015 World Cup.
On the back of that, I joined Newcastle. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there but I don’t think I was quite the same player as I was before that near two-year spell on the sidelines and by the time I joined Leeds for a second spell, I was having nerve problems down my arm and neck and couldn’t scrummage as effectively so I ended up calling it a day. My last game was the Championship Final against London Irish.
On the coaching front, I’m RFU Level 4 qualified. My interest in coaching really piqued under Gregor Townsend up at Glasgow. He made the link between what we were doing in training and game situations very clear. I coached West of Scotland whilst I was out for that long period of time, and then back at Leeds, I coached in the academy and assisted Tom Casson at Otley for two years before moving on to Hull Ionians. So I’d done quite a few bits and pieces before this forwards’ coach opportunity in France came up. PJ Gidlow, who I played with at Doncaster, is also part of the coaching setup. The club have really looked after me well, and the objective is to win promotion from Federale 2 to Federale 1, which is the equivalent of National One in England.
“Standing toeto-toe with Julian White helped me earn respect”