My life in Rugby: Brett Sturgess – former Exeter prop
I have a lot to thank Wayne Smith for. He gave me my break at Saints, who’d I’d joined on a £1,000-a-year bursary.
With Tom Smith away on Scotland duty at the World Cup in 2003, Wayne gave me the chance as first-choice loosehead ahead of Mattie Stewart. Going to places such as Toulouse in the Heineken Cup was an unbelievable experience and that season set me on my way.
When Wayne left to go back to New Zealand Budge Pountney came in at what was a difficult time for the club. I had a year left on my contract but was told I wouldn’t get much game time, which was hard for me to take.
Kicking my heels for a season didn’t appeal and luckily I got a phone call from Connacht inviting me for a trial. I played 19 games for them in my first season and it was just the move I needed.
Then Pete Drewett, my former coach at England U21s, asked whether I’d like to go back to England and join Exeter. The club had moved to Sandy Park and things were heading in the right direction so I jumped at the chance. That first season at the Chiefs saw us being beaten to promotion by Leeds. Rob Baxtor came in as head coach and the rest, as they say, is history.
Rob’s brilliant at getting the best out of players. I remember him coming into the dressing room after we gave Nottingham a good thrashing at home in the last game of the play-offs and saying that they’d left a note wishing us best of luck for the play-offs and that they’d look forward to seeing us again next year!
Bristol were everyone’s favourites for promotion but the three-point lead we took from the first leg of the final, after seeing off Bedford in the semis, was hugely important from a psychological point of view. Rather than kicking for the corners as we’d done in the first game, we opted for the three points whenever they were on offer up at the Memorial Stadium.
Again Rob played a blinder at half-time by telling us the Bristol lads had crates of champagne in their dressing room. Only he knows how true that was! Steeno (Gareth Steenson) kept the scoreboard ticking over until we were out of sight, and I almost grabbed a try at the end but was tap-tackled five metres out.
My wife Heather was heavily pregnant with our first child at the time but fortunately she managed to hold out until just after the final. I was actually on the victory parade bus on our way to the mayor’s office when I was told she’d gone into labour!
Beating Gloucester at home in our first Premier-ship game and then chalking up our first away win, at Saracens, when I scored from 40m off a pass from Ryan Davis, are two of my standout moments from that first season.
Myself, Matt Jess and James Scaysbrook played in every single game, and the following season was pretty much the same, but a broken arm in each of the next two seasons limited my involvement.
I suffered a bad knee injury in 2013 against Harlequins, on my 100th Premiership appearance, which was tough to take as I was renegotiating my contract at the time. Rob was good enough to give me another year but I spent the remainder of my time largely playing LV Cup and A team rugby – winning the A League title against Saints was very special.
Now I’m off to Ampthill in National One as player /coach, plus I’ll be working in the family painting and decorating firm.
