Bears still deciding if Attwood fits the bill
DAVE Attwood is in a contractual limbo because of the cut in the Premiership’s salary cap.
The Bristol and England second row has three months left on his deal with the Bears and is waiting to hear whether he will be at Ashton Gate next season.
“The reduction in the cap means every club is looking to see how its squad will work,” said Attwood, who won the last of his 24 caps in 2018. “I have always said I will stop playing when I am no longer delivering on the pitch. I think I have had a very good career so far and do not want to be known as someone who clung on because he did not want to give up on the dream.
“The role I perform for Bristol is specific, physical and demanding. While I can still deliver and make a difference I am very keen to do that. I am having chats with Pat (Lam, Bristol’s director of rugby) about extending my contract. As much as he would like to keep me, he has to find a space.
“I very much hope it works out. I have a repeat alarm on my phone and text Pat every day and want to get it sorted as soon as possible. I have kids at school, a mortgage to pay and, as things stand, I will be unemployed in three months.”
Attwood has completed a university law conversion course and has a career option beyond rugby, but he would like to study further while continuing playing.
“It is a brutal side of sport spectators do not see,” said Attwood, who turns 35 next month and will be in Bristol’s second row for the match against Harlequins at Ashton Gate today. “At the same time you are desperate as a player for things to work out on the field, you worry about a niggle in your back or the long-term implications of concussion and whether you will have a job at the end of the season.
“You think you are a big important person, one of only 20 or so people in the country who can do your job as well as you which is why you are in a professional team, but suddenly you are not important any more. Others of your age have been in their jobs for 15 years while you have been in the gym.
“It is not like leaving university without any obligations. In your 30s, you have commitments and bills to pay. It is why I got the law qualification. There is a huge number of incidents of depression among sports professionals, especially rugby players because of the physical element.”
Attwood has long been a campaigner for greater research into the effects of concussion on players. He has donated and raised thousands of pounds to raise awareness of an issue that has seen 175 former players, many of whom are suffering from early onset dementia, launch legal action against World Rugby, the RFU and the WRU for an alleged failure to protect them from the risks of concussion.
“You do lie awake at times and wonder whether you will be able to recognise your kids when you are 50,” said Attwood. “You have to compartmentalise it and not let it affect how you play.
“There is a huge shadow because we have no idea what is going on. It is one thing to be worried but another to be deliberately not looking. It is good that incidents such as the one involving Tomas Francis (playing for Wales at Twickenham last month) are being recognised and talked about in a way they were not a few years ago, but are things moving quickly enough?
“Players do not expect to go senile because they play rugby. As professionals, we have every contact session videoed and we wear GPS devices. Why are we not using that data to examine what is going on and fix it? Why are comparisons not being made with injuries sustained in motor accidents? I do not think we are looking hard enough.”
Attwood has never been one to take a backward step and he is looking to get Bristol back on the front foot against Quins whose last visit to Ashton Gate saw them recover from 28-0 down to win the Premiership semi-final last June. Little has gone right for the Bears since.
“It is a blip,” said Attwood. “Performances are largely on a par with last season and we are competing hard in every game. Mistakes are costing us and you then try too hard to fix the problem rather than allowing the system to. We are not in crisis mode. There is plenty of good stuff and we have to get the detail right.”