My Life in Rugby: Buster White – former Wasps flanker

The saying once a Wasp always a Wasp rings true with me, 100 per cent – even Coventry Wasps! Ironically my two boys play at Teddington Rugby Club who have an association with arch-rivals Harlequins, and the Quins logo is on the Teddington kit. I’ve got some black tape over the ‘offending’ area!
Having moved up to London (it could have been Bath) at the age of 19, to pursue my goal of playing for England, I went on to enjoy 13 years at Wasps, winning two league titles, one in the amateur era and one in the professional era.
I flat-shared with Nigel Melville and Huw Davies initially, and I was a bit in awe of them as they were England internationals at the time and I was a quiet Dorset boy. I remember Huw telling my Mum that I’d arrived a boy but would be sent back a man. We remain good friends and Huw was the MC at my testimonial dinner when I left Wasps in 1999.
Most people who saw me play wouldn’t describe me as the shy, retiring type on the pitch. I never suffered fools gladly, but what I dished out I expected to get back in return. As a six in those days it was your job to slow the opposition ball down or prevent it coming out. I didn’t feel like I’d had a good game unless my back and legs were covered in scars come the final whistle.
Wasps have produced some great back row players over the years, Lawrence Dallaglio probably being the most well-known. I used to room with Lawrence and for the first couple of years he was my tea boy. He made a lovely cuppa. I think I got away with that for a couple of years until he got his first England cap. I knew from the first time I saw him that he was destined for great things. He was 6ft 4in and gangly but possessed all the skills and pace.
Unfortunately I never got capped at senior level. But being recognised by the Barbarians five times helped to compensate. I also got to play in front of a 75,000 full house at Twickenham, in the 1995 Pilkington Cup Final, which was a great experience, even though we lost to Bath. After all, in those days, coming second best to Bath was the norm.
Two years earlier I did taste victory at Twickenham, against Northampton in the final of the 1993 Middlesex Sevens. I scored the try that levelled the scores at 25-25 after we’d trailed 25-0, and Phil Hopley, brother of Damian, kicked the match-winning conversion. A few years later, we made the final again, but a fully professional Wigan outfit, including the likes of Jason Robinson and Shaun Edwards, proved too strong on that occasion.
In the first couple of years of professionalism I combined playing with my day job with Nike, which involved training with the 2nds on a Tuesday evening and doing all the extra bits and pieces when time permitted. Luckily, Nike used to give me Friday afternoons off so that I could attend the captain’s run if we were at home or travel with the team if we were away.
By 1999 everyone had pretty much gone full-time so I decided to drop down a level and play for semi-pro London Welsh. The standard was still really good and we had some great players, such as ex-RL man Andy Currier, and a good coach in Clive Griffiths. We reached the quarter-final of the Tetley’s Bitter Cup in my first season, losing 35-26 to Northampton in front of a crowd of about 5,000 at Old Deer Park.
Nowadays I work for a number of sportswear brands, on a self-employed basis, as well as acting as an RFU Citing Officer. If I’d have had a pound for every time someone called me a poacher turned game-keeper I could probably have retired by now!
*As told to Jon Newcombe