My Life in Rugby: Ayoola Erinle – Former Wasps, Leicester, Biarritz, Nottingham and England centre

Wasps really were avant-garde under the coaching of Warren Gatland, Shaun Edwards and Craig White, and I count myself very fortunate to have been playing at the club during that ground-breaking period.
Previously teams had either been classed as forward-orientated and slow or lightweight and quick, but Wasps found a balance, underpinned by a rigorous strength and conditioning regime, that saw us blow opponents away, notably Gloucester in the 2003 Premiership final.
It took other teams three to four years to catch up and, by that time, we’d won a load of trophies.
Under Nigel Melville I was on the 1st XV fringes. There were quality players like Fraser Waters, Stuart Abbott and Mark Denny in front of me, and it took a loan move to Henley, which I arranged myself, to reignite my career.
Without blowing my own trumpet, I think I was the standard-bearer for the dual registration system. I’m all for it now – it served me well later in my career, too, when I went from Leicester to Notting-ham – but, at the time, dropping down the leagues felt like a backward step.
The 2004/05 season is when things really took off for me. I scored 11 league tries and played in nearly every game. I was lucky the way Wasps wanted to play suited my game. A lot of plays revolved around me using my strength and making ground up the middle. I was being mentioned as a possible contender for England but there was a lot of negative chat about my defence which the Wasps coaches felt was unwarranted because the blitz system was still in its embryonic stages and we were all getting to grips with it.
There were some great characters in that Wasps dressing room but, to a man, they were humble. I remember Lawrence Dallaglio coming up to me at my first training session and shaking my hand and introducing himself. As if he needed to! The good thing about Wasps was that you weren’t allowed to grow an ego. Not only were they great players, they were great lads and I’m still in touch with a lot of them. Unlike most of them, I’m still playing – for Loughborough Students, where I’m doing a physics and engineering degree.
The changing room before the famous 2004 Heineken Cup final against Toulouse was the most intense I’ve seen in my life – guys were in tears. I was on the bench and was preparing to come on for extra-time when Rob Howley did us all a massive favour and scored the match-winner with seconds remaining.
Why did I leave Wasps then? Well, I’d broken my leg and I was at a stage in my life where I thought it was time to explore other avenues. Also, Leicester had always been my club, ever since the Aadel Kardooni era. I played under four coaches at Welford Road and always seemed to be injured when the new man came in. Going on loan to Nottingham, where I was joined by Tom Youngs who was learning to be a hooker, sorted me out and I played in the Heineken Cup and Premiership finals in 2009. Richard Cockerill didn’t want me to go but I’d already agreed to join Biarritz.
Biarritz is a beautiful place and I have a lot to be thankful for because I was capped while in France. But the move never really worked out and I left under a bit of a cloud. I won the first of my two caps for England as a replacement for Dan Hipkiss, my midfield partner in both of those major finals, against Australia in 2009. I started against the All Blacks a fortnight later, the stuff of dreams, and I thought I showed up well. However injuries plagued me thereafter and I didn’t get another chance.
*As told to Jon Newcombe