My Life in Rugby: Jim Jenner – former Worcester and Newcastle No.8

I’ve been fortunate to play all around the world in Sevens and with some of the best players in the world in 15s, enjoying a couple of memorable cup runs along the way with Newcastle and then Pertemps Bees, who produced one of the all-time shocks in cup history by knocking Wasps out of the Powergen Cup.
After short spells with my hometown club Exeter and Bristol, where I was studying at university, Worcester made me an attractive offer to join them in their bid to climb up through the leagues.
Phil Maynard was leading the charge and I found him to have a very unique and enjoyable coaching style. I don’t think there are many others like him in the game.
I was selected for the England Sevens squad while I was with Worcester, and ended up playing at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, which was definitely one of the highlights of my career. To rub shoulders with the likes of David Campese, Waisale Serevi and Jonah Lomu at such a young age was a fabulous experience.
Cecil Duckworth was committed to taking Worcester to the top but unfortunately we never managed to get to the Premiership during either of my two spells at the club.
Instead, that’s something I achieved in between times at Newcastle. I spent the 2000/01 season with the Falcons and we had a cracking campaign on three fronts. We beat Harlequins in a thrilling Tetley’s Bitter Cup final after Dave Walder scored at the death following a controversial lineout call; reached the semi-finals of the European Shield where Harlequins exacted revenge on us; and finished sixth in the league, which, if I’m not mistaken, is still the club’s highest finish since the 1998 title win.
There was a great mix of youth and experience in the Newcastle squad with the likes of Tom May, Jamie Noon and Michael Stephenson, who all went on to become club stalwarts, playing alongside experienced campaigners such as Doddie Weir, Gary Armstrong and Marius Hurter.
Jonny Wilkinson was already well established at No.10 by that stage. And, if all else failed, we could just give the ball to Va’aiga Tuigamala and he’d run over people.
I re-joined Worcester after receiving a very generous offer from Cecil, and I still live in the city to this day. Unfortunately Rotherham and then Leeds pipped us to the post and I’d left the club before they finally managed to realise Cecil’s dream in 2003.
Having started my own nursery and property development businesses, I’d decided to take a step back from professional rugby.
I loved the game too much, though, to give it up completely and I ended up linking up with Phil again as a part-timer at Pertemps. The rag-tag Bees set-up was a far cry from Sixways with its indoor training facilities, but we had a lot of good players in the squad, as Wasps found out to their cost in the 2004 cup quarter-finals.
I knew Mark Denney, Josh Lewsey, Alex King and Fraser Waters from our days together at Bristol Uni and they were very dismissive about the game when I chatted to them beforehand.
Phil, however, had got us highly-motivated and we played the game of our lives to beat the English and would-be European champions. Needless to say the celebrations went on long into the night!
We drew my former club Newcastle in the last four and they appeared to have left no stone unturned in preparing for the game whereas we were probably a bit too over-confident. We got a bit of hiding but no-one can take away the memory of that Wasps game.
I left the Bees to take up a player-coach position at Stourbridge. I had two really enjoyable years there and helped take the side to within one point of reaching what is now known as the Championship.
It was a very time-consuming role and in the end I had to focus my attention on the business side of things. I still play and coach a bit in Sevens, most recently at the Hong Kong Sevens with the Irish Vikings.
*As told to Jon Newcombe