My Life in Rugby: Tony Diprose – former England Quins and Saracens No.8
That tour in 1998 was a huge learning curve for all of us, and for me, being England captain for the only time in that game against Australia was not easy.
But I am incredibly proud to have captained my country, and the way some people learned from that tour and kicked on shows that it wasn’t a waste.
I’d earned the first of my ten caps the year before in Argentina when the Lions were away in South Africa.
Lawrence Dallaglio, Richard Hill and Tim Rodber were all with the Lions.
It was an absolutely whirlwind summer because I went to Argentina for three weeks, then almost immediately got a call-up to join the Lions.
Being part of that whole experience with Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer was incredible.
I’ve never travelled as much as I did that summer, because after the Lions tour, England then had another match over in Australia.
Looking back at my England career, I think maybe I could have got another shot, but when you look at the back row of Hill, Neil Back and Dallaglio, that was the calibre of player I was up against.
I started my club career with Saracens, while also playing for Loughborough Uni. I’d had a couple of years as an amateur but then the game went professional.
Mike Catt was famously the first player to go pro, but myself and Richard Hill were second and third.
No one really knew what professionalism meant and it was a case of finding our feet a little and going out and training together.
Sarries changed a lot while I was at the club. When I arrived it was really a local club in North London, based around Cockfosters. Then Nigel Wray came in and you were playing alongside Michael Lynagh, Francois Pienaar and Philippe Sella.
We had an unbelievable season in 1997-98, where I captained Michael Lynagh and Philippe Sella in their last-ever game when we thrashed Wasps in the Cup final.
In 2001 I found out what professionalism really was when I wasn’t offered a new contract. Mark Evans offered me a chance at Quins, and one of my biggest achievements was being supporters’ player of the year.
Gaining the respect of the fans was just as important as the results, and we had some pretty special ones in that time, the win against Montferrand in the Challenge Cup in particular. We got played off the park for 70 minutes but we managed to nick it late on, and give Jason Leonard the perfect send-off.
I carried on and the year we went down was very tough, but I wanted to be a part of getting us promoted. That was the right time for me to go out, but I was fortunate to get involved in the coaching side and now get to look after both the academy and the first team defence.
Seeing guys like Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown and others come through and win the Premiership title last year was incredible, as is working alongside Conor O’Shea. We have to enjoy this because you never know if it will come again.
