My Life in Rugby: Ben Gotting – former Wasps and Worcester hooker

To play in the 2004 Premiership final and make a significant contribution to our 10-6 win over Bath was undoubtedly a career highlight.
I rate Trevor Leota and Mario Ledesma as the two greatest hookers to walk this earth but on that day Trevor, bless him, couldn’t hit a barn door. It made for quite frustrating viewing and I kept looking up at the stands to see if I’d get the nod. Warren Gatland looked down at half-time and said to me, ‘Can you do it?’ I said yes and I was on a few minutes into the second half.
I nailed all ten of my throws, the scrum was solid, and I managed to get around the pitch and make a decent amount of tackles. To come on and do the business and stick two fingers up to Bath, who always gave you grief on the pitch, was brilliant. A lot of people said to me after that I was the difference, and that was more praise than I could ever have wished for.
I joined Wasps in 2000 while studying for a Sports Science degree at Brunel University. It was an amazing time to be there. For someone like me to be able to change in the same changing room as people like Trevor and Lawrence Dallaglio, heroes of mine as a kid, was unbelievable – let alone win three Premier-ship titles, the Heineken Cup and Challenge Cup.
Initially, I played a lot of U21s rugby and my form earned me an England call-up to the age-group. Gats once joked that he’d make me the first player of Indian heritage to be capped by England but it never quite worked out.
I did think that I might be in with a shout of the Saxons if I ever managed to get a good run of first-team games, and that was part of the motivation for my move to Worcester.
I signed full of beans but had a terrible game in awful conditions down at Harlequins and got the shepherd’s crook at half-time. Chris Fortey stepped in and did a job and after that I spent most of my time on the physio’s table because of a knee injury that required two operations.
The injury effectively put an end to my Premiership career.
I had interest from Gloucester, London Irish and Saracens but none of them wanted to commit while there was still some uncertainty over my fitness, and as a result I spent a year out of the game in recruitment. Lehmann Brothers had had their crash and trying to get chartered accountants into investment banks was a soul-destroying experience. I’d sit at my office desk longing to be running around outside in shorts.
Thankfully, I got back into rugby again when an opportunity with London Scottish cropped up through Kenny Logan, an old team-mate of mine at Wasps who was working for the club in sponsorship. We won promotion after going through the season unbeaten and that led to me returning to full-time rugby with London Welsh.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t as quick or as dynamic as I used to be and fell down the pecking order behind the likes of Chris White-head, who went on to play for Exeter, Dan George and Gavin O’Meara.
I think I only played about six or seven games and that’s when I decided to call it quits and go down another avenue. Chris Walton, our conditioner at London Welsh, had worked with the likes of David Haye and he inspired me to venture into the fitness industry.
Several years on, I now co-own a gym brand called The Foundry. We have two sites in London – one in Old Street and one in Vauxhall – and run a successful boot camp out of it, called City Strongman. It’s great to have found something that I am passionate about – plus I get to wear shorts most of the time!
*As told to Jon Newcombe