My Life in Rugby: Jon Golding – former Newcastle, Northampton, Rotherham and England prop

Jon GoldingAs a player I enjoyed every minute I was on the pitch, the confrontational aspect of playing in the front row really suited me and I loved it when I was playing against former team mates especially or .
I made some great friends during my time in the game, mostly Kiwis as they had similar interests. As soon as training would finish we'd power-feed then blast off to the coast and hopefully score a wave! I was never what you'd call a rugby ‘nause', I liked to train hard, do my job and that was it.
was a dream move for me in lots of ways. I'd always harboured hopes that I'd play for the Falcons at some point in my career plus it meant I was closer to my extended family again. Location-wise Northumberland is perfect, too. I love the outdoor life; I'm lucky to live five steps from the beach!
My journey back to the North-east was a lot more circuitous though. My father worked for a multi-national food packaging firm of Swedish origin and his work took us all over Europe. I didn't play any rugby during my secondary school days until I went to the British School in Brussels where we played sides like the Luxembourg national team.
On returning to the UK I went to Millfield for a year where I was in the same team as current Falcons hooker Rob Hawkins.
Dusty Hare scouted me after we'd moved on again to the Midlands and I joined the Leicester academy.
From there I played for U19s and ended up at Northampton, where Wayne Smith proved to be a very good mentor and gave me lots of game time, mainly from the bench, in the season we finished second in the .
We were talking about extending my contract there when Wayne got offered a job with the and left. Alan Solomons came in and in the short period of time he was at the club he managed to undo most of Wayne's good work by dismantling what was a very good squad.
Next stop . In two seasons I played just under 50 games and really enjoyed being a regular starter in the team. Rotherham is a close-knit club with loyal supporters and I enjoyed every minute of my time there – even the 100-odd live scrums that Andre Bester had us doing on a Tuesday night.
Andre was a hard taskmaster and he did carry a stick with him in training but you could have a laugh with him, too.
I got the call to join the Falcons one night out of the blue from Rob Andrew. Naturally I was delighted to accept. At Newcastle I was fortunate to play in a really good front row alongside the likes of Carl Hayman and Rob Vickers. Statistically-speaking we had one of the best scrums in the Premiership, and week after week we went about our work with a smile on our faces and enjoyed forming a strong platform together.
My form for Newcastle saw me go on tour and play for England Saxons and I got a senior call-up for the tour to under Martin Johnson in 2010. However, I broke a rib in the England v game just before we left and I only appeared in one of the five matches on tour, against the Australian Barbarians.
Later in my career, every time I seemed set to get a look-in after that my Achilles would flare up; it was literally my Achilles heel. I kept getting small tears in the tendon and that made scrummaging difficult because I was unable to put any force through my foot.
I made regular trips to London to see a specialist and I'd always return in a moon boot with instructions to rest up for eight weeks. Just when I was trying to build momentum and have a big season I'd suffer a setback. It was a shame I didn't get a full cap but I don't dwell on that, what's happened has happened and I'm really enjoying what I'm doing now.
I decided to set up a lifestyle business called TRIBE which makes and sells sustainable products like wooden watches, wallets and sunglasses. Things are going well and my former teammate Tane Tu'ipulotu, who worked alongside me initially, has gone back home to with the intention of setting up a branch over there, and of course spread the message: Join the Tribe.

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