RFU ban destroyed Pilgrim's progress

In their final rage at the dying of the amateur light, the RFU did something which provoked angry questions in both Houses of Parliament.

- PETER JACKSON

They banned Steve Pilgrim for life. Far from getting even remotely close to fitting the crime, the punishment appears more outrageous with the passing of almost every week.

A domestic professional game wracked by all manner of rows over all manner of issues from broken contracts to salary cap skullduggery makes Pilgrim’s treatment all the harder to understand.

He has long considered himself a victim of injustice, with good reason. Early in 1993, the Wasps full-back had a trial for Leeds Rhinos’ Seconds against Wakefield Trinity Reserves under a thin cloak of anonymity, perhaps not the smartest move given his rising profile as part of England’s extended squad for the World Cup two years later.

As soon as the A N Other had been unmasked, the RFU reached for their black cap and declared Pilgrim persona non grata in Rugby Union for the rest of his days. “I played the game on Tuesday night,’’ he says. “On Wednesday I found out from the Press that they’d banned me for life.’’

The summary nature of his ex-communication, without being offered the chance to say a word in mitigation, left one of England’s brightest uncapped players sorely tempted to put as much distance between himself and Twickenham.

Indeed, Pilgrim can be found about as far from HQ as the planet allows, at a place called Red Beach on the Whangaparoa Peninsula north of Auckland. He relocated there not for any loathing of the RFU but for the love of a New Zealand woman, Sheree, now his wife and mother of his two teenaged daughters.