Sport
6/11/12
Issue 274
concrete.sport@hotmail.co.uk
23
INTERVIEW: Phil Vickery Phil Vickery was an key player in the England team that won the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and then captained the national team to the final in 2007. Recently he came to Norwich to promote his clothing range, Raging Bull. Here’s what happened when Billy Sexton and Sam Tomkinson asked him a few questions … What is the best moment of your career? It’s interesting. The obvious one would be winning the World Cup in 2003, captaining England and getting to the final in 2007 and playing for the British and Irish Lions. Throughout your career you have so many little highlights and some of those aren’t the things which people would think of. The first time winning the Heineken Cup with London Wasps I remember carrying my daughter, Megan, around the field in front of 80,000 people at Twickenham as a European champion. That was a special memory. My first cap playing for England against Wales in 1998 was just phenomenal because I never thought for one second that I’d ever represent England. I was happy at home milking the cows in Cornwall. Being 21 and running out at Twickenham, I genuinely lived the dream. It’s been fantastic. The World Cup in 2003, it wasn’t just winning it and winning it in Australia, it was the people that you play with, the coming home, the open top bus through London, going to Buckingham Palace – it’s not just the actual game, it’s what it means to the country. Even today when people stop you and say “22 November 2003 – greatest day of my life, thank you.” It’s been great and you can’t choose one, but obviously winning the World Cup and playing for the Lions was sensational. I’ve been very, very lucky. The worst moment of your career? The worst moments for me come from operations and injuries. Those are the bad times and the low times. I always hate losing - I don’t think anyone likes losing, all losses hurt. It’s lonely because when you’re in the limelight playing well everyone’s always praiseworthy, but when you’re injured no one really understands the pain and the heartache you go through to get back. I’m lucky to have my family around me. It’s frustrating when people say “oh, you’re injured again” because as a player you never want to be injured, but sometimes people say it to you like it’s your fault but I can’t help it! It’s not for the lack of effort and definitely as a sportsman the lowest times were the injuries for sure. Would you have liked to have played
playing for England against New Zealand. Mark Allen was known as the Bull. Clive Woodward was asked at the time, “How are your team going to cope with the Bull?” and Clive replied “Well we’ve got our own bull, the Raging Bull.” That was how it started and we did bits and pieces for rugby clubs. We then started doing leisurewear in 2005, 2006 and we’ve gradually grown from there. It’s a bloody tough industry! When people say something’s easy, it’s easy for a reason. If you want to get along in life you want to be proud of what you achieve. From being sat around the kitchen table talking about an idea 10 years ago and then sat here today in a House of Fraser store with my clothing brand, it makes me feel so proud and I’ve got such a good team of people around me.
anywhere other than prop? Well I started off at number eight, got a bit fatter and went to second row and then got a bit bigger and went up to the front row and that’s where I stayed. Playing in the front row, particularly in my era, I liked to play and understand the whole game. My passion is confrontation and believe me, when you’re in the scrum and looking someone in the eyes and they want to hurt you and you want to hurt them – I love that fear. What I love about rugby is that for different positions the game is different. A fly half will be wondering what the weather’s like, whether or not it’s raining. Whereas for me it’s emotion, it’s confrontation, so I thrived on that. Hand on heart I wouldn’t have wanted to have played anywhere else – it fitted my psyche. How much longer do you think you could have played were it not for the neck injuries? It’s a difficult one. I started young and was playing senior rugby at the age of 17 and 18, so I started young and finished young at the age of 34, but that was after three back operations so I actually did really well. I would have loved to have gone to the 2011 World Cup, but after what happened I’m glad I didn’t go! What is sad is when people come back and you have to ask, “why are you still playing? Is it because of money?” Don’t get me wrong, people have different reasons but I can look back at when I finished and be happy. I always needed something running alongside rugby, like Raging Bull, otherwise it would have eaten me up. I needed other things and I just don’t want to be remembered for that, I want to go on and do something else. How do you rate England’s chances for the 2015 World Cup?
I think the important thing with England since Stuart Lancaster took over is getting a nucleus of young guys, who in a couple of years’ time are going to be on 20 or 30 caps. It took me about 18 months to get a dozen caps and understand what was going on. It’s like when Sir Clive started in 1998 and got 25 guys as a nucleus. I think for me, this is the time for the England team to really move on. But the thing about sport is that we can all sit here and have our opinions on players and we’d probably only agree with three or four. I think there’s a great recipe for success at England. You’ve got a coaching position at Worcester, would you ever like to be involved in the England set up? Anything to do with England I’d love to be involved in, but I made a conscious effort when I finished a couple of years ago that I didn’t want to jump straight back into rugby. Of course I’m a big fan of the sport, I love the game as much now as when I started. Richard Hill from Gloucester rang me and asked, “what are you doing next year?” He offered me the chance to do a bit of scrum work with the younger lads and a bit of mentoring, to give an outside view on the team. I do two half-days a week and I really enjoy it. I don’t pretend to know it all because I don’t, but I can pass on knowledge and help whoever it may be to move forward. Would I like to be involved 24/7? Probably not because the game is spitting out coaches at the moment and I don’t want to go through that again for a little while. I want to start at the bottom and work my way up. How did you get in to the fashion side of sport? Raging Bull started in 1998 while I was
Raging Bull has grown from strength to strength over the past couple of years. Is it exclusively rugby based clothing or are you looking to expand? There’s always an element of the rugby side because that’s been our heritage, but when you look at the ranges from when we started and where we’re at now and looking ahead as well, a mistake would be to want to do everything and then end up doing nothing particularly well. For us, it’s about the constant challenge of developing. All the time we’re sat down we’re talking about what needs changing, what needs developing, looking at cuts, looking at stitching and we don’t want to lose what we do and have done so well. We notice you support the Wooden Spoon charity. Could you tell us a bit more about it? Wooden Spoon is a rugby charity for children who are disadvantaged and disabled. Since 1983 they’ve raised over £18 million, which is phenomenal. Wooden Spoon in Devon have only been going 10 years but they’ve already raised £1 million, just phenomenal. It’s great to be a part of and the teachers, helpers and assistants are just brilliant people, it’s inspiring. Who’s scarier: Martin Johnson or the Masterchef judges? The Masterchef judges. Gloucester or Wasps? Gloucester. Ruck or maul? Ruck. 2003 or 2007? 2007. In the 2007 final, was it a try? No.