My 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 to play rugby for a living. I have other interests, music for example, but since retiring through injury I’ve yet to find anything that I love, like rugby. I miss being around the lads massively but, for me, it’s the physical joy of playing – scoring tries or setting up a teammate – that I miss the most.
I’d joined Worcester straight from school and life as a professional was everything I’d hoped for. But a couple of months in I broke my leg in the Middlesex Sevens. I tried to be a bit cocky with a show-and-go on Henry Tuilagi but he was having none of it. He hit me with a high shot and I fell back on my leg. I’d told all my mates I was going to be on TV and I don’t think 50 seconds at the Middlesex Sevens counted in their book so once I was back to fitness I pestered Mike Ruddock for a chance.
After a brief loan spell at Pertemps Bees, I got my Premiership debut against Leicester at Welford Road, aged 19. I finished that season with eight tries in my last eight league games. The return of Shane Drahm from a loan spell brought about a more attack-minded style which helped myself and Marcel Garvey on the wings.
We comfortably survived relegation and made it through to the final of the European Challenge Cup against Bath at Kingsholm. It was a really wet day and we bombed a couple of chances but Bath deserved to win. I remember Thinus Delport, so reliable at full-back and a really good mentor for me in that first season, signing off with a try.
Leicester came in for me after Worcester were relegated in 2010 but at that stage I was set on the idea being a ‘one club man’. The Championship brought a different kind of pressure as I was expected to score a shedload of tries, and thankfully I got my fair share as we returned to the top flight at the first attempt.
Having been outside the Premiership for a season I was a little surprised when I got a phone call from Stuart Lancaster asking me to go on the England Saxons tour to North America. Scoring twice in the final of the Churchill Cup alongside some great players in an England jersey is one of my career highlights.
When Leicester called again I couldn’t pass the opportunity by. I was definitely ready to go after a season where wins were few and far between. Unfortunately, I arrived at Welford Road with a nagging foot injury sustained back in March and didn’t get to take part in most of pre-season which was really frustrating because I wanted to impress.
In my first game back – an A team fixture against Northampton – I fractured the C5 vertebrae in my neck, and that kept me out for another 13 months. Apart from a 20-minute pedal on the exercise bike I couldn’t do much. I think I’ve seen pretty much every DVD box set there is to see, and all the while my neck shrivelled up like ET!
I had a good run in the team on my return, scoring four tries – two in quick succession against Montpellier – in the Heineken Cup to earn a nomination as European Player of the Year and a call-up to the Saxons. However, a season-ending knee injury against Treviso in the penultimate round of the pool stage put paid to my chances of pulling on an England shirt again.
I played 19 games the following season and things were going well until I suffered another knee injury against Exeter in March 2015, and that was it, game over. Clearly my career ended long before I would have liked it to, but I take great satisfaction from having challenged myself against the best in the Premiership and Heineken Cup.