Winstanley’s guidance got me ready for Premiership
BIG tall props were fashionable in the mid-2000s – you had the likes of Andrew Sheridan and Soane Tonga'uiha making a huge impact – so, at 6ft 5ins, I suddenly found myself in demand.
Phil Winstanley, below, must have seen something in me and took me under his wing at Waterloo and it wasn't long before I had Premiership interest from Sale, Leicester and Saracens. I met with the first two but went for the Sharks as they were closer to my home in Liverpool and had won the Premiership the year before with an exceptional squad. Travelling abroad to France for pre-season with guys like Sebastian Chabal and Jason Robinson was incredible. Chabal was like a rock star there. People would slam their brakes on and jump out of their car to have their photo taken with him.
Competition for places was tough – so tough that Kingsley Jones, who'd taken over from Philippe Saint-Andre as head coach sometimes didn't know who to select. At one forwards session, Kingsley made all the forwards form a circle and Fearnsy (Carl Fearns) and Taity (David Tait) had to have a wrestle. I'm pretty sure Fearnsy won. I learnt loads off fellow looseheads, Lionel Faure and Sheridan but that didn't stop me getting a shock when I hit my first scrum. It was against Duncan Bell of Bath in the EDF Cup and it felt like I'd hit a brick wall. The following week it was Dan Cole and Leicester and I had two decent games and got selected for the live TV game against Worcester the following week. Tevita Taumoepeau just toyed with me all game.
I loved my four years at Sale and converted to tighthead while I was there, under the watchful eye of England's 2003 World Cup scrum coach Phil Keith-Roach, and I almost switched to second row, too. Dean Schofield had left for Toulon and Kingsley had designs on me being a like-forlike replacement as I'd filled in there once or twice in the past and enjoyed it. But Kingsley got sacked and Mike Brewer came in and he couldn't see where I would fit in the team and I moved on to Rotherham despite having a year left to run on my contract.
Rotherham coach Andre Bester had seen me play for Lancashire against Yorkshire and got me down there. Don't get me wrong, he's not everyone's cup of tea but I've got nothing but good things to say about Andre. As a talentspotter and developer of players, he takes some beating. Ben Harris, who's now in the Premiership, came to the club as a second row and Andre converted him into a prop. There's a funny story behind that. Andre was still deliber- ating about what Ben's best position was and they had a meeting to discuss where his future lay. Andre suddenly told him to drop his shorts and as soon as he saw the size of Ben's legs – the biggest I have ever seen in rugby – he said in his broad South African accent, ‘right, that's it, you are a prop'.
“At one scrum I held my breath so long I almost passed out”
Doing 120 live scrums in training on Monday wasn't much fun, but it worked. I started the season well and was getting good ratings in The Rugby Paper but then I dislocated my ankle and broke my leg about four or five games in, against Nottingham. There was no malice in the tackle from Sione Kalamafoni but all his body weight fell on my leg as he tackled me from behind. Mentally and physically it took a while to get back from that but by the time we played Worcester, I was back to my old form and had clearly made an impression on Richard Hill, their coach at the time.
I loved it down at Worcester, although I was only thirdchoice to start with as they had Euan Murray and John Andress on the books. It was also a difficult time on a personal level as my dad had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and he passed away just after a pre-season game against Rotherham. After a couple of weeks compassionate leave, I was thrown in at the deep end – as a tighthead – against Leicester. I was up against Logovi'i Mulipola, another brilliant scrummager. At one scrum I held my breath for so long I almost passed out.
I played quite a few games that season but I developed some selfdestructive habits that, in retrospect, had a negative impact on my career. I took a lot of things to heart and, at the end of the season, I perhaps didn't react as well as I could have done when Dean Ryan, who'd replaced Hilly, only offered me a one-year extension on the same money. It felt like a kick in the nuts because I'd actually gone from being third-choice to starting some weeks. That season, I'd had an issue with my AC joint and had pain-killing injections so I could play. It needed sorting so I had surgery and then went on holiday to recuperate. I came back for pre-season training a week later than everyone else and was called out by Dean for not working hard enough. Half an hour or so later, though, he had to come across to apologise because the heart rate monitor I was wearing hadn't been working properly.
From that moment things seemed to deteriorate for me. More often than not, Dean or Carl Hogg would tell me I wasn't required for training and I'd spend the day in the fitness suite instead, much to Tom Biggs and Alex Groves' amusement. I had no idea why the situation had turned on its head. It was like I'd murdered one of Dean's family.
Frozen out at Worcester, I took Yorkshire Carnegie up on their offer to go there and I enjoyed my time under Brush (Bryan Redpath). It was surreal getting a WhatsApp message from Kevin Sinfield saying he was looking forward to playing with us all. At first, I thought it was a wind-up. Kevin is one of the nicest guys you could meet and an utter professional. It's just a shame we never got promoted.
“I was frozen out … it was like I'd murdered one of Dean's family”
Then it was off to Rouen to link up with Hilly again. I loved the lifestyle out in France and would've liked to have stayed more than a year but I wasn't offered another contract due to an Achilles problem restricting my game time. Hilly, like a lot of the coaches I played under, was from the amateur era, and he just told me that when he had a similar problem in his playing days, he just stretched it off. So that's what I did. It later turned out I'd suffered a partial rupture and it needed surgery. I had the op in April and a couple of months later I was back to 100 per cent. It was frustrating because if I'd have had the surgery when the problem first flared up, there would still have been plenty of the season left for me to try and earn a new deal. As it was, that was the end of my French adventure and I returned to the UK, to play for Caldy in the National Leagues, while also starting work outside of rugby in personal training. Covid put a stop to that and now I have a managerial position with Marpol Security.
– as told to Jon Newcombe
