WHEN Perpignan reached the 2009 Top 14 final, Perry Freshwater made a stand. The England prop put club before country and opted out of that summer’s trip to Argentina even if it mean ringing the death knell on his Test career, which it did.
To his credit, Freshwater chose to stay with his confreres in Perpignan for the climax to the season, against Clermont at the Stade de France. His rationale revolved around an old-fashioned concept, loyalty and standing foursquare behind his team-mates.
“They are my friends,” Freshwater told me at the time. “We play and train in a...