-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Errie Claassens – former Rotherham and Worcester wuing
Back home in South Africa it was rugby, rugby, rugby. Every break time or after school you’d be playing full contact...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Nick Wood – former Gloucester prop
I arrived at Gloucester as a boy and left 15 years later as a man. The club and the characters and...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Daniel Browne – former Northampton, Bath and London Welsh lock
Born and raised in New Zealand, I grew up marvelling at the skills of Zinzan Brooke. He had it all. Wayne...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Erik Lund – former Rotherham, Leeds and Biarritz lock
Fighting Mamuka Gorgodze on my debut may not have seemed like the best career move I could have made but it...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Jason White – former Scotland flanker
Kicking off with a Calcutta Cup win against England in 2009 was a fantastic way to start my international career and...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Nic Rouse – former London Irish, Sale and Nottingham lock
I was 27 by the time I made my Premiership debut, in a one-off game on loan for injury-hit London Irish...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Lee Byrne – former Lions and Wales full-back
It would have been nice to reach 50 caps for Wales, especially as I felt I was playing some good rugby...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Kenny Milne – former Scotland & Heriot’s hooker
It is all very well playing international rugby, and representing the Lions in 1993 was a great personal honour, but when...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Barry Everitt – former London Irish & Northampton fly-half
It was the norm to have a hurling stick in your hand, not a rugby ball, where I grew up in...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Dave Scully – former England Sevens scrum-half
Winning the Sevens World Cup in 1993 was the highlight of my career and my try-saving tackle on Fiji‘s Mesake Rasari...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Roy Winters – former Bedford, Harlequins & Bristol back rower
It was thanks to my two left feet that I packed in football and tried my hand at rugby instead. Being...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Jon Clarke – former Leeds, Worcester and Northampton centre
On reflection, being told there was no money left in the kitty at Bristol and that I was free to move...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Paul Hull – former England and Bristol full-back
Throughout any playing career you have ups and downs and when I played for Bristol that was most definitely the case....
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Steve Smith – former Sale and England scrum-half
I came from a council house family in Stockport and my dad was football mad. In fact, I’d never seen a...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Sam Smith – former Harlequins and Worcester wing
By rights I should have been a Wasp. My dad played for the club and I had a few training sessions...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Tony Buckley – former Munster, Sale and Ireland prop
Up to the age of 16 my shoe size correlated with my age, meaning I had to have rugby boots specially...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Craig White – former Lions performance coach
The three years I spent at Wasps, between 2002 and 2005, was an incredible period in my career. Warren Gatland and...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Martin Cooper – former Moseley and England fly-half
If anyone had told me when I was first starting out at Wolverhampton RFC that I’d get 11 caps for England,...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Ben Woods – former Leicester, Newcastle and England Saxons flanker
I grew up in south Yorkshire dreaming of becoming a footballer so I’d never have guessed that the only penalty shootout...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy life in Rugby: Brett Sturgess – former Exeter prop
I came from a football family and didn’t play rugby until about 15 when I became too big to play centre...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Miles Benjamin – former Worcester, Leicester and England Saxons wing
It’s only when you look to explore different avenues in life that you get to fully appreciate how special it was...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Hal Luscombe – Wales, NG Dragons, Harlequins and harlequins centre/wing
Coming from South Africa I didn’t fully appreciated just how big a rivalry Wales versus England was, or the magnitude of...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 9 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Andrew Small – former RFU elite panel referee
Refereeing the Army-Navy game in front of a full house at Twickenham, with my wife and kids in the crowd, was...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Tom Guest – former Harlequins and London Irish back-rower
I don’t think any player is truly happy with what they have done when your days have been cut short through...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Bleddyn Jones- former Leicester fly-half
I was named after Bleddyn Williams, the Prince of Welsh centres when I was born in 1948, in a mining village...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Mark Foster – former Gloucester, Exeter Chiefs and Jersey back
To be involved in Exeter’s first-ever Premiership game was an unbelievable experience – and to score against my former club Gloucester...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Redford Pennycook – former Bristol, Newcastle and Ealing flanker
My old mate at Bristol, James Merriman, said that life as a professional player was like being on an emotional roller-coaster:...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Derek Wyatt – former England, Bedford, Bath and Oxford University winger
The England selectors in my day were out of touch, God bless them, and coaches were even worse. I played under...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Aadel Kardooni- former Wasps, Leicester and England ‘A’ scrum-half
I don’t think I had ever seen, let alone held, a rugby ball until I came over to the UK from...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Jason Strange- former Ebbw Vale Newport, Bristol and Leeds fly-half
I look back fondly on my time at each club I played for but my second spell at Ebbw Vale, and...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: David Officer – former Scotland A, harlequins, Edinburgh and Worcester centre
Randall Philip (Edin-burgh University) and Graham Hogg (Currie) were major influences in my early rugby career, but it was while playing...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in rugby: Chris Gray – former Edinburgh Academicals, Nottingham and Scotland lock
I can’t put a price on the amount of fun and entertainment I had during my career. Whether it was playing...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Steve Gustard – former Gosforth winger
When I joined Gosforth from Blaydon in 1971, there weren’t any great stars in the squad. Yes, future England scrum-half Mal...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy life in Rugby: Steve Boyle – former England, Lions, Gloucester and Moseley lock
The day I was told I’d been selected for the 1983 Lions was probably the happiest and saddest of my life....
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Niall Woods – former Ireland, Leinster, London Irish and Harlequins winger
When the game turned professional I was playing for Blackrock College and Leinster and had a handful of Ireland caps. The...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in rugby: Peter Clegg – Otley Director of Rugby
For me, defeats stick in the memory more than the wins, and few hurt quite as hard as Otley’s last-gasp loss...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Mike Bulpitt – former Blackheath and England back
Easter tours to Wales with the Barbarians were absolutely amazing experiences and the games came thick and fast. Playing four games...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Ayoola Erinle – Former Wasps, Leicester, Biarritz, Nottingham and England centre
Wasps really were avant-garde under the coaching of Warren Gatland, Shaun Edwards and Craig White, and I count myself very fortunate...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Peter Squires – former Ripon, Harrogate, England and Lions wing
Ripon born and bred, I was lucky enough to be able to play both county cricket and rugby for Yorkshire. I...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Olly Kohn – former Harlequins, Bristol, Plymouth and Wales lock
First and foremost, I feel lucky to have been involved in what felt like a golden era for Quins. Conor O’Shea...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Nigel Horton – former England, Moseley and Toulouse lock
Being the first England player to play for their country across three decades, I once found myself the subject of a...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy 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...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Tony de Mulder – Doncaster president
It was a great honour to lead the side out against Moseley last month when I celebrated my 25th anniversary as...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Jake Abbott – former Worcester and England Sevens
I’m living the proverbial dream as the first professional overseas player in America at the country’s first professional rugby club, Griffins...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Rob Hardwick – former Coventry, London Irish and England prop
Playing for Coventry and treading the same turf as my heroes had done was something I’d always aspired to when I...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Darren Molloy – former Wasps, Gloucester and Leinster prop
Once a Wasp, always a Wasp is an oft-used phrase that resonates with me 100 per cent. From the day I...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Richard Moon – former Harlequins scrum-half
I’ve got an embarrassingly long list of former clubs but Walsall RFC is where my playing days, aged five to 35,...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Scott Mathie – former Bulls, Sharks, Leeds and Sale scrum-half
If there is one match I’d like to be able to go back in time and change, it would be my...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Mark Bakewell – former Eastern Suburbs player and Bath coach
With more than 400 games as a player (prop and back row) and coach, Eastern Suburbs in Sydney is definitely my...
-
My Life in Rugby
/ 10 years agoMy Life in Rugby: Mark Jones – former Scarlets and Wales wing now Rotherham coach
Hopefully my rugby career has plenty of miles left on the clock – the long commute from Llanelli to Rotherham certainly...
Features
OSCAR WILSON
BUCS Super Rugby
Cardiff Met’s Gus Patterson on becoming Bridgend’s next rugby star
The best betting sites
