My Life in Rugby: Ross Reynolds – former Wallaby No.8 and Rotherham, Australia and Brumbies coach

Having won Premierships in Australian club rugby as both a player and a coach with Manly, Gordon and Sydney University, it is a pity I never got the chance to do the same in England.
My one and only experience of coaching in the English Premiership was by default. I went to watch Rotherham play Newcastle in their final Premiership fixture shortly after I'd been appointed head coach for the next season. I was there purely as an observer but ended up in the dressing room taking the team through tactics as nobody wanted to assume control. We were competitive for most of the game, despite a horrendous penalty count against us, before losing 26-20.
With relegation confirmed, the whole focus was on bouncing straight back up. We recruited a lot of the Orrell squad I'd been in charge of for the two previous seasons, including Nick Easter and Andy Craig.
We had the makings of a Premiership squad and I expected us to challenge strongly for promotion. But an unpaid tax bill led to the administrators being called in.
Ringing the Ulster management to tell them we couldn't fulfil our final pre-season game against them, after they'd already flown over from Ireland, was my most embarrassing moment in rugby. Coming so soon after Dave Whelan and chairman Maurice Lindsay had decided to pull the plug on their investment at Orrell, it was hard to take. Personally I felt let down on that front as I'd knocked back an approach from Leinster when I first arrived in the UK to fulfil my verbal commitment to Orrell.
My wife and I decided to stay on in England after the Rotherham debacle, mainly because our daughters were at school in Lancashire. All the coaching jobs had been snapped up by then and living off our Australian savings was tough.
But after a few months things started to happen. I was offered the job as Warren Gatland's replacement at Wasps on a four-year contract after Robbie Deans had turned them down, and I was short-listed for the new Western Force job. But I decided to accept Eddie Jones' invitation to become his assistant with the Wallabies because I believed it was the best move for my family – but as it turned out not for my coaching career. As Jones failed, I was deemed to have failed, too.
I continued to coach as Laurie Fisher's assistant at the Brumbies which was an enjoyable environment; however, it made financial and family sense to go back into the commercial world and return to the construction industry.
I had retired from playing international rugby in 1987 aged 29 for family and work commitments. These turned out to be my prime rugby days where I continued playing club rugby. I won ten caps for my country between 1982 and 1987 and sat on the bench another 22 times.
It was a good time to be a part of the Australia team where we managed to break New Zealand's aura of invincibility. Scoring a try, being named man of the match and defeating the mighty All Blacks in only my second Test is right up there as a highlight. I enjoyed our attacking style and my greatest rugby pleasure was when running with the ball in two hands, following the Ellas and others who put me through gaps and made me look better than I was! My last cap was against Japan at the inaugural 1987 World Cup.
I carried on playing for Manly and then Gordon. Winning the Sydney Morning Herald Cup and the Rothman's Medal Player of the Year in 1992 and then the Sydney Premiership in 1993 was a great way to bow out.