My Life in Rugby: Joe Shaw – former Sale, Northampton, Newcastle and England Sevens back

I will always cherish being part of the first England 7s team to win Hong Kong in 2002.
We had people like Josh Lewsey, Simon Amor and Henry Paul but nobody really backed us – but we ended up winning it, beating Fiji by quite a phenomenal score, 33-20.
I absolutely loved it – travelling to amazing places and playing against guys like Waisale Serevi and alongside some great players. Ben Gollings has gone on to become the highest ever points scorer in 7s. It really put England on the map.
Then two years later to win something with Newcastle Falcons like the Powergen Cup – again I don’t think anyone really gave us a chance.
Sale were a fantastic team at the time. They had Jason Robinson, Charlie Hodgson, Andrew Sheridan – the list went on.
The great Jonny Wilkinson was still injured from the World Cup but we had the likes of Hugh Vyvyan and Jamie Noon.
We had a very good team and it could have gone either way – I scored a try but the lead changed hands so many times until Phil Downson scored in the last few minutes to give us a 37-33 win in a thrilling final.
My interest in rugby kicked off at school and I went on to play England schools and the captain was Alex Sanderson. He made such a big impact on me as a player I ended up following him and signing for Sale in 1998, which at the time was a pretty tiny club.
But Nick Beal unfortunately broke his leg at Northampton and it was a good opportunity to go there in 2000.
I had two years there but spent most of the time injured unfortunately. Then they signed Bruce Reihana and sometimes as a player you have just got to accept some players are better than you.
I then joined Newcastle in 2002 and it was the best choice I made in my career. A few of my friends were at Newcastle and my best mate, James Grindal, was about to join.
I picked up a serious knee injury after the cup-winning season and I wasn’t in favour – it got to 2009 and it was done really.  I had been coaching probably since I was 20 and the opportunity came up to go to Hong Kong and coach the national team I grabbed it.
Having options in England is great because you stay in the system, but out in Hong Kong you are a long way from people’s eyes – it was a gamble.
But after three years Saracens came over on a trip and Andy Farrell had just been promoted to England backs coach and I ended up getting the job as the academy backs coach in 2012 before starting as skills coach last summer.
It’s funny because Alex Sanderson is here as well as forwards coach. We were together at the start of my playing career and now again at the start of my coaching career.