My life in Rugby: Andy Beattie – former Bath, Exeter and Richmond back-rower

Andy BeattieDuring my 11 years with Bath I was fortunate to play alongside some great players and great leaders – Danny Grewcock, Steve Borthwick, Jon Humphreys and latterly Stuart Hooper.
That said, Jon was probably the worst trainer you'd meet but absolutely superb when it mattered on match day. It used to take him 20 minutes to warm his ageing shoulders up before lineout practice, much to the annoyance of model-pro Borthers!
I made my debut for Bath at the start of the 2001/02 season, a 10-6 loss at newly-promoted Leeds Tykes. Zak Feaunati, who went on to play for Bath, caused havoc that day. Having been disappointed to finish second-from-bottom that year we were just grateful to find ourselves in the same position 12 months on.
With Bath and battling to avoid the drop there was talk about the clubs merging. Thankfully we survived after a last-gasp win against , when Elvis Seveali'i, or ‘The Saviour' as we like to call him, got us the win we needed.
Thankfully TMOs weren't in play back then, because I'm convinced one of Barry Everitt's drop-goal attempts went over.
Determined not to be in the same boat again, the club recruited a number of players and built the side around a big pack.
Occasionally we gave the backs the ball to play with but our strength was up front and in defence. We reeled off loads of wins during the period and finished top of the pile. I started every game and hardly missed a minute but unfortunately the season ended in defeat, to Wasps in the play-off final.
A loose pass cost us that day, and the same was true a year later when Andre Snyman scored an intercept try to hand Leeds a victory in the Powergen Cup final. No wonder we never gave the ball to the backs!
At least I wasn't in the first Bath side to lose a cup final at Twickenham; I'd broken my leg and suffered ankle ligament damage playing for ‘A' against France earlier and had to sit the match out.
Richard Hill, who I idolised for his workrate, had retired from playing and the England No.6 shirt was up for grabs. There were a lot of players vying to get into the wider squad and in that respect my injury was ill-timed. I had the honour of playing for my country, however, being part of the famous England U18 squad that went on an unbeaten tour of Australia in 1997.
Bath made inquiries about me on the back of that tour but I decided to stay in London and teach for a year, while still playing for Richmond who I'd joined at the age of six. I eventually left Richmond to do a BSc degree in Sports Science at St Luke's College, , and I played around 50 games for the Chiefs during their National One days.
It was great to be in the same pack as the Baxter brothers; Rob had an aura and I'm really pleased to see Exeter doing so well now.
The high points of my Bath career came in Europe. We had a great run to the semi-finals of the in 2006, beating Leinster and – when we were down to 13 men in the quarter-final at the Walkers Stadium – on the way to a last-four showdown with in San Sebastien.
It was a brilliant venue for a match that could have been ours had it not been for the odd missed opportunity or dropped ball over the line, Dimitri Yachvili's boot killed our dreams that day. Bath's 10-year silverware drought came to an end, though, when we defeated Worcester to win the 2008 European .
My career came to an end after 238 appearances in the blue, black and white when I broke my ankle again. After a spell in financial services I set up my own health and fitness business called Studio 6.

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