My Life in Rugby: Steve Bainbridge – Former Blaydon, Fylde, Orrell, Gosforth, England & Lions Lock

I’m firmly of the belief that National Service or a couple of years of compulsory rugby would help today’s youth understand respect and values. As a youngster, from not the best part of Newcastle, I thought I knew it all – until I joined Blaydon as a 15-year-old. The elder statesman of the changing room brought me down to earth very quickly with their rapier wit.
Respect is one of rugby’s core values and no matter what happened on the field you would always share a beer with the opposition afterwards. The only exception I can think of to that rule was on an England U23 tour to France when their captain was sent off for punching the ref, in what was probably the most violent game I’ve been involved in, and the bad feeling spilled over into the night.
I was once touted as an Olympic prospect at decathlon by athletics coach John Anderson, of Gladiators fame. He put it to me when I left University that I could either take athletics seriously and push for the Olympics or continue playing rugby, drinking every weekend and having a great time. There was only ever going to be one winner.
I was fortunate to get 18 caps for England – I actually played 43 times but games against the likes of USA, Canada and Samoa weren’t capped back then – as well as playing for the ’83 British & Irish Lions. The tour was long, challenging and fun but injuries took their toll. New Zealand won 4-0. We only had a 25-man squad and four management; I think Clive Woodward had more people in his media team in ’05!
My best mate ‘Winters’ (Peter Winterbottom) and I decided to go skiing on the eve of the third Test even though he’d never done it before. Reckless as he was, he insisted on us going right to the top of the mountain, and by the time we cleared the slopes it was practically dark. Needless to say, Willie John McBride was fuming.
My first England cap against France in Paris is an occasion I will never forget. We’d beaten France in their own backyard for the first time in ages and boy did we party! When we eventually sat down for the after-match dinner we found these vinyl 45 records in front of us along with a bottle of pastis and a bottle of aftershave. Before too long, the records were being flung about the room like Frisbees and our waiter got caught in the eye by one of them and was bleeding quite profusely.
Then Maurice Colclough shouted ‘Benghazi’ which meant you had to down what was in front of you. He’d secretly emptied his aftershave and replaced it with pastis which was the same colour. Colin Smart, our prop, hadn’t cottoned on and necked not one but two bottles of after-shave and had to have his stomach pumped. Steve Smith, having escorted Smartie to the ambulance did comment that he didn’t look too well but smelled fantastic! The fun wasn’t over then. We left the speeches halfway through to have a drink and a sing-song with our police motorcycle cavalcade. Budge Rodgers warned us we’d never play for England again unless we returned to our seats. We ended up getting a lift from the police to a Parisian nightclub instead!
I’d had a good Lions tour in ’83 and I looked set for a good run in the England team until I got sent off during the next two consecutive years.  Although the sending’s off were at club and county level, if you got sent off at any level in those days it came with an automatic one-year England ban. I was back in favour in time for the first World Cup but picked up an injury.
My international days over, I continued playing for Gosforth before returning to Blaydon. Other highlights include two County Championship finals with Northumberland. We lost to Middlesex at Twickenham in ’79, where I came up against my hero, Andy Ripley, but beat Gloucestershire two years later.