My Life in Rugby: Nigel Heslop – former Orrell and England winger

Of my 10 appearances for England the two matches against the French in 1991 are probably the ones that people remember most but for completely different reasons. For me, just being involved with the national team for two years was a dream come true.
I was privileged to be on the park for what is widely regarded as the best try at Twickenham. Unfortunately it was scored by the French despite us winning 21-19. I was still retreating on halfway by the time Philippe Saint-Andre touched down to finish off the length-of-the-field move. I wasn’t best pleased but, looking back, it was a quite brilliant try.
Six months on from that Five Nations clash we played France again in the World Cup quarter-final, a game we won 19-10. My powers of recollection aren’t the best having been floored by four or five punches from Serge Blanco and Eric Champ who took offence to me going in hard in the tackle after a mark had been called.
Blanco was out for retribution after he’d caught a high ball a minute earlier and our pack had steamrollered over him. At the time I was dazed and didn’t have a clue about what was going on – not that I was going to let on. If they’d known I was concussed I would have been off the pitch and out for three weeks. As it turned out though I was dropped for the semi-final against Scot- land when Simon Halliday was preferred on the wing.
France didn’t need much goading. They were so easy to wind up and we knew their discipline would go. I got a taste of the psychological stuff in the tunnel before the game. I was still young and dead keen at that stage of my career and jumped to the front of the line up only for our forwards to get hold of me and wrestle me to the back of the queue. They didn’t want me getting in the way of them eye-balling the French forwards and after seeing some of the looks exchanged I was glad to be well out of it!
We had a great pack in those days backed up by Rob Andrew’s tactical kicking but we won the game on the back of two tries for the backs. Rory Underwood went over to give us a 10-6 lead and then we sealed the game when Will Carling got a second. That really should have been my try. Richard Hill put up a little up and under and I was first to hit Blanco, then Carling came in and stole it off him. Maybe if I’d have got the try I wouldn’t have been dropped!
Needless to say we celebrated long into the night in Paris and ended up in a nightclub accompanied by the ITV crew. Presenter Jim Rosenthal got a right old soaking when John Olver poured a bucket of iced water over his head and I followed it up with another dousing.
At the end of the ‘91/92 season, my club Orrell missed out on the Courage League title to Bath by a point after narrowly failing to get the result we needed at Wasps in the final match.
With the realisation that my England days were probably numbered, I took up an offer from Oldham RL and spent the next few seasons being injured. Being an ex-Union winger meant everybody had it in for me. I broke my jaw three games in and also cracked my ribs and broke my nose before returning to Orrell.