My Life in Rugby: Craig Gillies – former Bath, Worcester and England lock

With 288 first team appearances over 11 years, there is no doubting Worcester Warriors are a team close to my heart.
When I arrived in 2002, we were gunning for promotion from Division One but missed out to Rotherham by three league points.
But in the 2003-2004 season we won 26 out of 26 and got ourselves promoted for the first time in the club’s history.
It felt like we were having the time of our lives. It was an exceptionally tough season, but the coaches made sure we didn’t get carried away and we knuckled down.
Gaining that promotion and getting to the so-called promised land after quite a few attempts for the club meant so much.
Although an incredible experience, that first year in the Premiership was hard. It was about surviving really.
It came down to the last game against Northampton and we had to win to stay up. Drew Hickey, the Australian No.8, took my short lineout and ran in under the posts for the win, which was great.
The 2006-2007 season was the same again, this time against Saracens, and we ended up running out comfortable winners.
But our stay in the Premiership came to an end in 2010. Knowing we had been through it all in previous seasons, perhaps players thought we have been there before, we will stay up again. But Leeds turned us over in the second from last game with almost the final kick.
It was a hammer blow after all that time working so hard to get into the league and then for it to come to an end.
There’s a space between the pitch and the tunnel at Headingley, and I remember walking off the pitch and just looking out at the cricket ground next to the ground and taking ten minutes to myself to reflect on it all. It definitely took a while to get over.
Time moves on, we had a new challenge in the Championship which is right up there in terms of toughness.
Fortunately after a sticky play-off leg game with Bedford, where we were 17-3 down after 20 minutes, we managed to get through to the final and gain promotion back.
My career started at Bath, when I was 18 and the club was in its heyday.
I didn’t make any league appearances for them though and with my studies at university in London, I eventually got offered a contract by Richmond.
I was fifth or sixth choice lock at the time, 21 years of age and they got promoted.  I was really just there to further myself as a player but one thing led to another and I ended up playing all but one league game in the 1997-98 season after Richard Lester got injured.
It was also the year I got my England A call-up which was a great learning curve, getting to play games against Ireland, France, Wales and Scotland.
After Richmond’ s unfortunate demise I then went to Llanelli with the intention of going for a year but stayed for three and scoring a try when we won the SWALEC Cup final at the Millennium Stadium against Swansea in 2000 was one of my career claims to fame.