My Life in Rugby: Paul Simpson – Gosforth, Bath and England flanker

In the space of a week, in 1987, I went from playing for England against Ireland at Lansdowne Road in front of 40,000 people to turning out for Bath United, the club’s second team, against Chew Magna at Lansdown Hill in front of four people and a dog.
I was on the end of some banter that day – from both sides! It was a classic example of Jack Rowell not selecting a player based on reputation or length of service but on what he felt was best for Bath Rugby. He was normally spot on with his judgment, and, I’ll hold my hands up, I had a shocker against Ireland.
The Ireland game proved to be my third and final cap but I can’t complain because better players than me never got any caps at all. One of those was my captain at Bath, Roger Spurrell. Welsh players used to tell me how much they hated Roger. They were used to English opensides that would get a good ‘shoe-ing’ early on and then go hiding behind the full-back for the rest of the match. Not Roger. He would take a good kicking and he would turn around and say, with blood pouring down his back: “Is that all you’ve got?” He was as hard as nails.
I was blessed to play in an outstanding back-row alongside Roger and a young John Hall who broke the mould when it came to forward play. He was one of the first ‘athletes’ to play in the pack and the modern game would have suited him far more than most of us. Hally’s physique was a step above anyone else’s. Training for me was a means to an end!
While my international career ended disappointingly, it couldn’t have started better: a 15-9 win against the All Blacks at Twickenham in 1983. New Zealand were the best team in the world and had been for many years yet a Maurice Colclough try and Dusty Hare’s boot along with some resolute defence were enough to see us to victory.
I’d played against the All Blacks a couple of weeks before for the Northern Division, a game we lost 27-21. My father was in the RAF so we travelled around a lot until my secondary school years when we settled in Wiltshire, but I played all my regional rugby with the North.
I was born in Leeds, went to Newcastle Polytechnic and spent five seasons with Gosforth, after Jack Rowell had left. Playing for the North was something I enjoyed hugely. Whereas the South & South-West aside would be made up of three clubs: Bath, Bristol and Gloucester, the North side was a conglomeration of lots of different clubs. For most of the boys I played with it was the pinnacle of their career and there was a real sense of pride in representing the region.
My move to Bath came about by chance really, not through Jack’s connections with Gosforth. I was invited to come across for a week by Simon Jones who I’d played with on the Barbarians‘ Easter Tour of Wales in ’82, and I ended up spending eight years at the club before my retirement in 1990.
The Cup finals are the games that stand out in the memory; they say the first one is special and beating Bristol in 1984 made it even more so. After London Welsh the hat-trick was achieved against Wasps.
I came off the bench in the ’89 final against Leicester but missed the final against Gloucester the following year. I’d supplied a try-scoring pass to Graham Dawe that won us the semi-final against Moseley but twanged my cruciate against Llanelli in the ‘Rag Doll’ match at Stradey Park. That proved to be my last game.
I’m still involved with rugby as a director of Angell Mallinder, an Independent Financial Services company. As well as providing the usual portfolio of financial services we offer clubs and players medical insurance cover.