Nottingham fly-half James Arlidge plans farewell to remember

James Arlidge wants to set alarm bells ringing in opposition defences, as well as airport security.
The 32-year-old Nottingham fly-half is refreshed ahead of what could be his last season as a professional rugby player.
“If this is my last season, which I am thinking about, then I’d like it to be a good one,” said the New Zealand born, Japan international.
“At the end of this year maybe I’ll have to go out and get a proper job, but for now I just want to do my bit and help the team be successful.
“As a team we had a disappointing finish to the year. We made some good strides towards the end of the regular season and got on a roll.
“The whole squad was getting game time and there was a really good feel around the club. But we found ourselves on the back foot from the start in the play-offs after gifting London Welsh three or four tries. That set the tone really.”
The former Auckland Blue continued: “We’re going to have a much smaller squad this year which will make for a tighter bunch of guys.
“We’re looking to fix the few areas that let us down in the play-offs and be better equipped to deal with things in big games.”
Arlidge captured the headlines in New Zealand during the last World Cup, and not only because of his exploits for adopted country Japan.
No sooner had he touched down on the airport tarmac and passed through security – never a straightforward task given the metal rod inserted in his left leg five years ago as a result of an injury –  he was whisked away by wife Anna to buy a house in Auckland. The property is a future family home for him, his wife and their two young boys.
“Whether we move back at the end of this year or the next year we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.
“I haven’t had an off-season in five years. With the World Cup and everything else, I worked it out that I’d gone a straight 21 months without more than a couple of weeks off rugby.
“I took the decision to make myself unavailable for international rugby and have a break and I turned up on the first day of pre-season for the first time in 10 years so I was pretty excited.”
JOHN NEWCOMBE