My Life in Rugby: Erik Lund – former Rotherham, Leeds and Biarritz lock

Fighting Mamuka Gorgodze on my debut may not have seemed like the best career move I could have made but it earned me the respect of the Biarritz fans and I went on to enjoy six seasons – some successful and others not so – at the club.
I only started playing rugby at Lancaster GS, aged 11. Hailing from Norway, skiing was my No.1 sport; my boyhood heroes were Alberto Tomba and Pirmin Zurbriggen. Weekends were usually spent on the dry ski slopes at Kendal or Rossendale.
I went to Newcastle University and switched to basketball for three years. It was only when I left uni and returned to the North West to do a Masters in computer science that I started playing again, with my cousin at Winnington Park.
From there I joined Manchester and then went on loan to Fylde for a season and won the County Championship with Lancashire. Quite a few of my team-mates were at Sedgley Park, including player-coach Tim Fourie, and he asked me to join them. Tim, along with Andre Bester, is one of the most enthusiastic and committed people I’ve met in rugby.
My big break came in the 2006-07 season when Rotherham just lost out to Leeds in the race for the National One title despite beating them home and away. Stuart Lancaster signed four of us from the Titans: myself, Hendrie Fourie, Joe Bedford and Adam Hopcroft. I’ve got the utmost respect for Lanny and I’m very grateful to him for my first shot at full-time rugby.
It was do-or-die for me and it took a while to get up to speed with the extra pace of the Premiership and the physicality. But the mental toughness that I’d developed under Andre at Rotherham and then “Scrapper”(the late fitness coach Steve Carter) at Leeds, stood me in good stead. I guess I found my niche in the team when I came off the bench to shore up the scrum against Harlequins.
Lanny left to join the RFU after we were relegated but we won promotion and finished 10th in our first season back up in the Premiership, which was a pretty special achievement because we had such a low budget compared to the other teams and the squad was largely the same. Marco Wentzel and Seru Rabeni made a big difference.
My brother Magnus was out in Biarritz and told me they were looking for a second row. We’d only ever played against each other (Sale versus Leeds) and never on the same team so that prospect, and the chance to try something new and play in France, persuaded me to join them.
My first season there (2010/11) was really good. We reached the Heineken Cup last eight, only losing to Toulouse in extra-time. My previous international experience was limited to a handful of games at No.8 for Norway. I’d have liked to have played more for them but, because of the weather, most of the games were in the summer when I was having a break from the demands of club rugby.
Thinking the good times at Biarritz would last forever I signed a new three-year contract. However, the ambition of the club seemed to wane and then there were the financial problems which led to relegation to ProD2. With how the game was officiated, you’d have to play very well to get a result away from home. Eddie O’Sullivan struggled to come to terms with what was a very different environment and got the sack. Thankfully, we consolidated our position in the league under David Darricarrere.
I’m now looking for one last short-term playing contract before taking up a full-time job with Catapult, who are in the GPS and motion-tracking business for sport.