A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME
SOMETIMES it's easy to write about the passing of a great sportsman or woman, listing the games they played and the tournaments they attended, but this is going to be a difficult article for me to write as this is someone I have shared almost 40 years with, on and off the field of rugby.
I first met Paul Rendall when I joined Wasps in 1984, the year he won his first two caps against Wales and South Africa as an England International loosehead prop. He had played games for England before, but as it was against teams like the USA, (who he actually scored a try against) they were not counted as cap games, because caps were only awarded in games against the foundation unions then.
At club level, we soon became good friends and would train constantly against each other to improve our technique. Scrummaging so low that our noses touched the floor but we didn't ever collapse.
At the time, our hooker Alan Simmons, was always on the bench for England and Paul told me of his dream that with me joining the club, Wasps could become the Pontypool of England, by supplying the front row for the national team. By the time I had made the England squad ‘Simmo' was no longer involved but Paul had cemented himself in the loosehead spot.
Once in the squad, Judge and I were constant companions virtually always sharing a room whether on tour or just for the Five Nations and we were perfect room mates as he never returned to the room until the following day and I stayed up until the early hours of the morning watching the TV.
The only time we had a problem was once in Australia when there was nothing to watch so I went to sleep. The next morning I woke up with Judge asleep in the other bed and I got up to make tea, I noticed the room door was hanging off its hinges. I woke up the Judge and said someone has broken in so we better check they haven't taken anything. He said, ‘Don't worry it was just me knocking on the door trying to wake you up'.
As the game advanced, wives and girlfriends (wags) were included for away trips in the Five Nations, with them staying in a separate hotel from us until after the game both our wives also shared a room. This made the bond between our families more than just friendship and we would often meet up in London for a meal ending up in Bar Italia then Little Italy in Soho where the Judge would spend the rest of the evening dancing the night away.
It was in 1990 that the Judge knew his time with England was coming to a close when he was told by England's manager Geoff Cooke that as the best loosehead in the country he didn't have to tour Argentina and could have the summer off.
It became more apparent that he was right in his assumption when the squad was announced with three loosehead props, Mark Linnett, Victor Ubogu and the young Jason Leonard just out of the U21 side, but only one tighthead prop – me. After the first game on tour against a club side with Mark Linnett, who had sat on the bench throughout the previous Five Nations because he said he could play both sides, was picked on the tight, with Victor on the loosehead and Brian Moore at hooker.
Unfortunately we lost, with the front row taken apart at virtually every scrum. The next game was against Tucuman, the champions of Argentina with our front row of myself, John Olver and the young Jason Leonard.
We had all played together before for London Division and we went on to win the game. With Jason doing well this led to him being picked for the Test matches. Immediately after the Tucuman game I phoned the Judge and said you don't have any worries with Linnett and Ubogu but Leonard is a different story, he is not as good as you, but is not bad so they will keep picking him till he mucks up, which I don't think he will. Paul told me later, at that moment he knew that the best he could hope for was a place on the bench which was true until the last training session before the 1991 World Cup Final.
Paul's final game for England was when he was called from the bench against Italy in the pool stages, where I received an injury to my knee. He was picked on the bench for the final but in our last scrum session against a Rhino pneumatic scrum machine he tore his Achilles and so he was unable to take his place in the matchday squad with his leg in plaster.
The funny thing was that because we were together so much, people used to mistake us for each other and ask for our autographs which we would both sign in each other's names.
After the World Cup final at the post match tea, Paul and I joined our wives in the Rose room to mix with supporters and talk to different groups of people. While we were there, a committee member walked up to Paul and said great game today Jeff before turning to me and saying sorry to hear about your leg Paul.
Twickenham played a large part in our lives and up to when he first became ill just over two years ago, we would always go together, meeting in the Marriott hotel bar before entering the ground. Post match it was then down to the ERIC bar to catch up with some of our team mates, sometimes staying till the bar closed.
There are a million stories I could tell about the Judge and even then I would only be scratching the surface. To those who knew him, he was well loved character, a legend, a team-mate, and a great friend. A man who I and my family had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with.
I will always keep in my head one of his favourite sayings: “We're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time” and he was right. Cheers, Paul.
