My Life in Rugby: Luke Fielden – former Bedford and Newcastle wing
As a young lad, I remember going to watch the Middlesex Sevens, sat up high in the rafters at Twickenham with my Bath rosette on. It was the first rugby event that my dad had taken me to and the atmosphere and everything about it really captivated my imagination. So, to lift the trophy as a Newcastle player in 2007 was a special moment for me.
I was studying at Northumbrian University at the time and Falcons academy manager Mark Laycock invited me to take part even though I had no direct involvement with the club at that stage.
After graduating from University, I continued to play for Cambridge, with whom I’d played senior rugby since about the age of 17. I was a great period in the club’s history; we won the ‘Triple Treble’ – the Cambridgeshire County Cup, the Eastern Counties Cup and promotion in the space of three years.
In 2008/09, my last season with the Blood & Sand, James Shanahan had us playing some great rugby and we finished second to Birmingham & Solihull. Ordinarily, this would have been enough for us to secure another promotion to what is now the Championship, but the RFU decided to restructure the leagues and only the champions went up.
As a loyal Cambridge lad, I would have probably stayed had we been promoted. Instead, I accepted an offer to join Bedford. I had some great coaching from the likes of Nick Walshe with Mike Rayer obviously overseeing the whole operation, and the squad was fully of characters – people like Paul Tupai, who I can’t believe is still going strong at 40 years plus. We reached the play-off semi-finals only to lose to the eventual champions Exeter.
My decision to leave wasn’t straightforward, because I loved my time at the Blues and they’d given me my big chance, but the prospect of signing for Newcastle, a Premiership club in an area I knew well, was too appealing to turn down.
At the end of my first season at Newcastle, in 2010/11, I scored a try that helped keep us up. Tane Tuipulotu chipped the ball through and Bath’s Nick Abendanon and I had a foot race to the ball. Luckily, he had a bit further to run than me and I touched the ball down. Whether he touched it down too, you’d have to ask him, but I celebrated hard enough for the referee to give it! In fairness, we’d not had the rub of the green that season and deserved a bit of luck. It gave us the losing bonus point we needed.
I had a good pre-season that summer and earned the JP Morgan Sevens player of the tournament award. That momentum continued into the season itself until I dislocated my kneecap in a European game and that was me done for the season. Sadly, we just failed to stay up.
Obviously, relegation isn’t something you like to experience but, in hindsight, it probably did the club some good. On a personal note, it was nice to be in a Newcastle side that was winning most weeks – until I injured my knee again. Like the first injury, it appeared fairly innocuous at first, I thought I’d just twisted it, but it turned out to be career-ending.
While injured, I’d signed a full-time contract with England Sevens in 2013, obviously thinking that it would only be a matter of time before I returned to fitness. So to be denied the opportunity to pull on the white jersey in a World Series tournament is one of my biggest regrets.
Nowadays I’m teaching at Colfe’s School in Greenwich as well as coaching Old Colfeians who are second in London 2 South East. It’s great to be part of a team environment again.
