My Life in Rugby with Chris Catling – The England A, Gloucester, Exeter, Worcester, Beziers & Amatori Catania full-back talks about his time in the game
I’VE been a long time retired so when I come across people in work now, and I tell them in conversation that I used to play professional rugby, those that are interested sometimes go away and Google me. After seeing the very flattering website articles that claim I am one of the best English players never to be capped, they often come back with, ‘blimey, I didn’t realise you were that good’! Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have such things written about you but if I am being honest, I’d prefer it if I had a few senior caps instead.
I was knocking around the England set-up and Six Nations training squads during the time when Matt Perry made the England 15 shirt his own and I like to think I pushed him hard; when I last bumped into Pezza, the lovely guy that he is, he kindly said I should have had some of his many caps – after all he had a few he could have shared! I got pretty close, getting 10 England A caps as well as other representative honours for various England sides before that. However, when Jason Robinson came on the scene, I think it was quite clear he was a class above.
My rugby days started at Whitgift, a contemporary and very good friend of mine was Jonny Ufton the Wasps full-back for many years. We, together with another alumni Gavin Thompson who played at London Scottish, were the outliers at the school in that time as we were the first to go on and play at the top level.
Back in the day, Whitgift was a good rugby school and provided an excellent education as well as amazing sporting opportunity but nothing like the rugby academy it has now become. The headmaster, Dr. Christopher Barnett, who took over as head as I was going into sixth form, had a goal to produce more schoolboy internationals per year than Millfield, and I am pretty sure he succeeded.
A while back, Jonny and I went back for an Old Whitgiftian’s Sportsman Dinner and participated in a photograph of all Whitgiftians who had played professional rugby – we both remarked at how old and irrelevant we had become given the large, assembled picture and notable rugby players such as Danny Cipriani and Elliot Daly among others to have worn the school’s colours with distinction. Jonny and I took some pride of being some of the first alumni, as well as admiration for the direction of the school’s rugby these days.
From there, I went to Exeter University and in my second year I played for the Exeter Chiefs and had a steep learning curve of playing full men’s senior rugby; we won the old 4th Division under a very influential captain, Rob Baxter – a proud moment along with the speculation that I was to be the first professional rugby player for Exeter. The Premiership came calling, however, and thanks to Phil Greening, who I knew from England Schoolboys, he persuaded me to have talks with Gloucester who subsequently offered me a part-time contract which became full-time for the 1997/98 season.
I’d like to think I did and still have a good relationship with Gloucester’s fans, despite being a ‘foreigner’ from south London, because I always gave my all and wore the shirt with pride over the seven seasons I was there. I think what also helped was that I always seemed to save my best games for Bath, the deadly rivals.
There was a Tetley’s Bitter Cup tie down at The Rec and we seemed to be defending a six-point lead for ages and ages and I had to pull off two try-saving tackles, one on Kevin Maggs and another on a flying Iain Balshaw. It is moments like that, when the final whistle sounds and the Gloucester fans go wild, that you cherish.
After playing over 150 games for the Cherry & Whites, I left for the French Top 16. Due to some contractual misunderstandings, Gloucester left it late for us to agree that I would be leaving the club but as one door closed another amazing one opened.
Over in France, Beziers had been given a reprieve from relegation because Begles-Bordeaux had gone bust and been chucked out of the league and, as a result, they were given an extra month to sign players. I was one of a group of discarded players from around the world who were highly motivated to prove people wrong. I was the only native English speaker at the club and was competing with a couple of excellent fringe French squad fullbacks so they actually signed me as a winger. I’d just got married too, so it was a real adventure and an amazing extended honeymoon period for the two of us.
Beziers is such a cool place. In the 1970s/80s, they won the French Championship seven or eight times and most of the coaches in the league were all ex-Beziers players. It is such a similar town to Gloucester – industrial and very rugby centric and a great culture. We had an amazing flat above a French cafe next to the canal running through the town, 10 minutes from the beach.
Midi Olympique said in their pre-season preview that we were cast-iron favourites to go down but we actually made the play-offs, losing to Castres in the semi-final. We had the biggest pack of forwards, ever, proper French monsters who were suited to the French league back then, and we had three Argentinian fly-halves including Gonzalo Quesada and Federico Todeschini. Feddy was first choice for most of the season and he was a brilliant flyhalf who could kick the ball miles. I, as a winger, would chase the ball and slowly this huge pack would catch up and fight whoever was in their way.
On the face of it, the French rugby culture was at odds with the thuggery on it. Kissing and handshaking was a big thing and it was easy to cause offence if you missed anyone out in the normal pre-training morning routine of greeting, handshakes (or bisou), to all members of the squad. It was weird how on the pitch you wouldn’t get kicked at the bottom of the ruck like you did in England, in France they would carefully step over you and then turn around and gouge your eyes out!
From there, I had another amazing experience at Amatori Catania in Sicily, who were in Italy‘s Top 10 division. I joined the newly-promoted club who at the time were really figuring out what they wanted to be as a professional club – it had its moments including a number of players’ strikes and delayed salary payments – but again we confounded the critics and, despite being the favourites for relegation, also made the final four, losing our play-off game to the ultimate and perennial champions back then of Benneton Treviso. It is a proud achievement of mine to have played in the knockout and final stages of the Premiership, Top 16 and Italian Top 10.
Nine years after I’d played for Exeter as a student, I re-joined the club in 2005. My game was all about being a fast and elusive runner – they used to call me ‘Crazy Legs’ but sadly, by that stage, my left hip was knackered and I wasn’t the signing they thought I was going to be. By the end of the first season I could barely walk let alone run and I didn’t want to fleece Exeter for the second year of my contract, especially as the club had been so instrumental in my early rugby development. So I went to see Rob Baxter who had just taken the top job and the club agreed to look after me and pay me whilst I had my hip done. I am very grateful to them for that support.
I have had to have two more hip replacements since but even though my body is falling apart – my knees aren’t great these days to go with my titanium hips – I am so glad I got to experience the lifestyle of a professional rugby player in those early days. To spend a lot of time with your best buddies during the week doing something you absolutely love and to then go out on a weekend and perform in front of full houses was just fantastic.
After several years away from the game working in the sports media rights and technology business, I answered an advert asking for former players to become citing commissioners – for which I have been for the last eight years. So now, I get to go to watch Premiership, European and international rugby matches, typically three weekends out of four. As well as having the best seat in the house, it’s great that I get to bump into so many people who I’ve either played with or against. Also, there is probably a little bit of an altruistic motive I have to help the game navigate the difficult situation caused by the current conversation around brain injury.
