My Life in Rugby: Chris Malone – former Bath, London Irish and Quins fly-half

I came to England in 2001 and had 10 great years, experiencing time at five different clubs, all of which were brilliant in their own way. When I arrived, I was only a few weeks into a relationship with Belinda, who is now my wife, and we went on to have three kids who were all born in England. Clearly that period overseas played a big part in my life as both a player and a person.
I came from a Rugby League background originally and only started playing Rugby Union when I was a boarder at St Stanislaus’ College. I captained Sydney University to their first Premiership title in nine years in 2001 but after a few years chasing a Super Rugby contract to no avail, I decided to take Ian Bremner up on his offer to join Exeter.
When I first turned up at the old County Ground, I thought, “Wow, this will be interesting!” I had a great seven months there in National One under the captaincy of Rob Baxter.
I signed for Bath in the summer of 2002 and asked Belinda to come and live with me in England. Bath is the place we still call home whenever we come back to visit and our first child, Josh, was born there. It is the most beautiful city and the Recreation Ground the most picturesque that I have ever had the pleasure to play on.
Of my five seasons at Bath, 2003/04 was very special. Even though I started the year as the third-choice 10 behind Mike Catt and Olly Barkley and found myself loaned out to Bristol, I was recalled once Catty got called up by England for the World Cup and started a fair few games after that, we went on to top the league and play the Premiership final against Wasps.
In that game, we called a play that we really shouldn’t have run and Paul Volley was all over me like a rash. I threw a pass that went on the ground, and Stuey Abbott picked it up and ran away to score. We’d dominated the game for long periods but that was to prove the difference.
That team – a good blend of gnarly forwards and talented backs – enjoyed plenty of good times together, but a trophy always seemed to elude us. We beat Leicester at the Walker’s Stadium in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals and then just missed out in the semi against Biarritz in San Sebastian. Any derby match between us and Gloucester was special too. I remember Tins’ (Mike Tindall) first game back at The Rec after joining Gloucester and I was lucky enough to kick a drop goal from over 55 metres that helped to win us the game. I still don’t know how it went over to this day.
A change of coach at Bath led to me moving on. I had an offer from Cardiff Blues but chose Harlequins instead. More great times followed, including the epic Heineken Cup win over Stade Francais, whilst Bloodgate was obviously a low point in the club’s history. I replaced Nick Evans and then tore my hamstring off the bone in the game.
During my time at Quins I played in the last-ever Heineken Cup game at Stradey Park, when we beat Scarlets. Indeed, I was fortunate to play at some great venues; I even enjoyed being at the receiving end of the donkey noises at Kingsholm.  That said, on a beautiful day, there is no better place to play rugby than The Rec.
Another two great years at London Irish followed before I decided the time was right to return to Oz to take up a coaching spell at my first club, Sydney University. Four years there led to an opportunity at the Waratahs in Super Rugby, where I’m currently backs and attack coach under Daryl Gibson. I was also part of the Wallabies’ coaching team as kicking coach at RWC 2015.
Rugby has been great to me, and I owe it a lot.