lifts the curtain on what it's like at the margins of the professional game. After playing in the English second tier, I made the leap over the Channel to join a new project team who aimed to bring the sport to the previously rugby ignorant city of Rouen.
I signed for Stade Rouennais after several seasons in the RFU Championship. Prior to that I spent time in the Bath and Newcastle Academy, captaining Newcastle University while completing my degree and playing in the Guinness A League and National 1 with Blaydon.
5 of us were brought to the club along with coach Richard Hill to turn an amateur team into a professional outfit. During our time we became exactly that and oversaw promotions to the edge of the French big leagues.
It was a great adventure, one that took longer than we thought and that kept us in Rouen where we had no initial intentions of staying.
Follow 4 years in the wild world of French rugby, where life is fun but precarious, inconsistent but rewarding and ultimately, purposeful yet futile.
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https://www.instagram.com/p/BWqDuhiBsWw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
My story is the sort of rugby tale that goes under the radar. Professional yet poorly paid. Precarious with year to year contracts yet worth pursuing both for fun and for the slim chance of making it to the big leagues.
(learn more about my rugby here)
