SOMEONE pointed out to me that winning silverware doesn’t happen very often so I can count myself as one of the lucky ones having celebrated two Championship promotion-winning campaigns with London Welsh, a County Championship win with Lancashire and a Lancashire Cup win with Waterloo. I came close to a Championship hattrick with Leeds but we we lost the 2017 play-off final to London Irish.
Two spells playing in New Zealand really cemented my belief that I wanted to be a pro rugby player. The first came after I deferred my final year at Uni and I played alongside Tom Wood, the former England flanker. I enjoyed it so much, I didn’t want to come home but I had to complete my studies. While back at Uni, I played a bit for Waterloo and that’s when I got a phone call from Graham Dawe asking me to go down to Plymouth. After a season there, I went to Dunedin to play for a club called Green Island. Former All Black, Ben Smith, was our 13.