Knackering Fran Cotton's knee in a training session thankfully wasn't my only contribution to the England rugby team! That happened in my early 20s when the Bucks county side was invited down to Bisham Abbey to give England a practice run-out. I chopped Fran down in a tackle and he was out for a year and all the chat was about who'd done this to him!
Move forward a year and I was back at Bisham Abbey, but this time as a member of the England squad, not as cannon fodder. I remember being in the Elizabethan room and hearing my name read out when they announced the team to play Scotland for our first game in the 1979 Five Nations. For a 22-year-old who had gone to Mandeville Secondary Modern and studied Building, albeit briefly, at Southbank Poly, it all came as a bit of a shock.
I was lucky enough that my England career coincided with a lot of tours, I think I went on eight if you count the first Rugby World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. We didn't get caps in a lot of the matches because the International Board, as then was, didn't recognise the likes of Japan, Fiji and Tonga – the destinations on my first tour in '79 when I played in all three games. We got a very warm welcome on the islands. I remember the pitch in Tonga was covered in these little sea shells and the lads got cut to ribbons. The King of Tonga was there in the stands and he was a big boy, he took up two seats and could probably have played front row all by himself.
The matches in Argentina in '81, the year before the Falkands War, were capped. We drew one and won one of the Tests and we dined like kings. We were based in Buenos Aires and inflation was sky high, so you couldn't go out and have a drink in a bar – the price would have doubled before you'd have got the next round in – it was that bad. So the suppliers would bring crates of beer to us in our plush hotel and we'd meet up in each other's room and socialise that way. I remember we were warned about being sent home, not because of the drink but because of the restaurant bill. You could order what you liked and six of us forwards, who had a table to ourselves, got stuck in ordering double mains of steak and lobster. Unfortunately they got wise to how much we were tucking away and told us to rein it in.
In Canada/USA the following year we just drank ourselves silly. We didn't over indulge the night before a match even though we knew we'd win comfortably, it's just the other six nights of the week that we let our hair down! South Africa in '84 was different for obvious reasons, not only because it was at the height of apartheid but also because we got stuffed in both games by a very tough Springbok side. There was obviously a lot of pressure on us not to go there and I even got a signed letter to that effect from Neil Kinnock on House of Commons
“I gave up the game for good after I got sent off and was arrested for ABH” headed paper. They picked an all-Gloucester front row for the first Test but they were dropped en masse and it was me, Steve Brain and Paul Rendall who played in the second match. I grew up with Paul, we came through the Bucks system and went on five England tours together. Quite often we'd be room-mates. He was an amazing guy, he loved his family, he loved his rugby, and he was a great character. It is so sad that he is no longer with us.
New Zealand is a nice country, it's just a shame we got stuffed there, too. And then, two years later, it was the first-ever World Cup over there and in Australia. I was lucky enough to play in two World Cups and while we were much better prepared for the second one under Geoff Cooke, we still took the World Cup seriously in '87. It was just a bit of a step into the unknown for everyone.
All of my 36 England caps came while I was at Northampton. I made my debut against Aberavon on an Easter tour at the end of the 1977/78 season, and that was the start of 18 seasons at the club. There were various approaches by other clubs, I do recall one by Harlequins, but while Northampton weren't doing particularly well in the mid to late 80s, I am a loyal person and never had any intention of leaving.
When some bigger players joined after the ‘Gang of Seven' overthrew the old committee and installed Barrie Corless as the first-ever, full-time paid rugby administrator things started looking up for us. Wayne Shelford was the biggest signing of the lot but, unfortunately, he had gone back to New Zealand by the time we reached the '91 Pilkington Cup final against Quins. I captained the club that day and I am proud of the fact that we pushed them all the way, taking the match to extra-time, in front of hordes of Saints supporters. I think someone said we sold 18,000 tickets. It was one of the highlights of my club career even though we didn't win.
I faced some of the best looseheads in the business during my time with England and Saints, but one of the hardest opponents wasn't someone who you would necessarily call a ‘name', although I am sure Bristol supporters will remember him fondly, a guy called Mike Fry. He wasn't the biggest guy but as he wasn't afraid to put his fingers where they shouldn't be, you always feared playing against him. But my worst injury from rugby came was I was on the wrong end of an All Blacks boot when we beat them at Twickenham in 1983. My ear was half hanging off and by the time it got to the Sunday evening, it had swollen up so badly I rang the physio Don Gatherer, who lived nearby. Don arranged for me to have plastic surgery the next day.
After supposedly playing my last game for Northampton, Ian Mc-Geechan, who captained Scotland on my England debut, persuaded me to come out of retirement as the club were staring relegation in the face and we needed to win all four of our remaining games in the 1994/95 season to stay up. None of the England players were available because there was a restriction on the amount of games they could play due to the World Cup, so he needed my experience. We won three of the four games but lost to Gloucester and went down.
My playing career also transcended both the amateur and professional eras – for all of 12 games – after Gary Rees asked me to join Nottingham when they found themselves in a similar predicament the following season. I was on £500 a league game and made 12 appearances in the second half of the season.
After that, I went back to Aylesbury as a player at first and then as a player-coach. As an ex-England player, I was a target. Don't get me wrong, I could look after myself but every match there was someone trying to take you down.
In 2001/02, there was an incident that made me give up the game for good. We were playing Amersham & Chiltern, and I had the ball under my left arm and was running with it – on one of the rare occasions I did – and I brought my forearm up as there was a tackle coming in from the side from their flanker. It caught him across the face and he went down. That was the first time I got sent off. But that wasn't the worst of it; a few weeks later I was arrested for ABH. I couldn't believe it.
The Bucks RFU had a meeting and as they found me not guilty, I was free to play again immediately. But it was a couple of months before the police dropped the case against me. We all thought the matter had come to a close but then, around six months later, I received a letter saying civil action was being pursued by the injured party. There were still question marks whether the club was insured or not. But, luckily, the day before I was due in court, the insurers paid up, and that was that.
Nowadays, I occasionally go to watch Saints play and it was really good to meet up with some of the old faces at a recent Benevolent Dinner in Pall Mall. We may all look a bit older and greyer but the banter is still the same although we're maybe a bit better behaved. For one, Piggy Powell's shirt didn't mysteriously catch fire!
– as told to Jon Newcombe
