THE FORMER WASPS, NORTHAMPON, NEWCASTLE AND LONDON IRISH WING

JOHN RUDD

WHEN I was at Wasps, after a couple of breakthrough seasons, I was told by a couple of the senior England players not to book a summer holiday because I was in the reckoning for a senior national team tour.
As it turned out, I picked up a knee injury in the Parker Pen Cup Final in 2003 and wasn’t available anyway.
Also, Lesley Vainikolo had arrived on the scene and got a couple of caps that possibly might have been mine! I think England felt obliged to play him with the RFU having helped to bring him over from R...