MY RUGBY WORLD

The stand-up comic on Andrew Sheridan, clubhouse rules and smuggling beer into Twickenham...

- JOE ROBINSON

How did you get into rugby? My first rugby memory was at secondary school, Chace Community School in Enfield. I was terrible at football. A teacher, Mr Harman, a big Welsh prop, started a rugby team. It turns out he only did this because he wanted an excuse to drink. We’d only play teams that had clubhouses, so he could have a pint. We played a Saracens team and they won 88-0 and it was the first time I had a shandy.

Was that you hooked into rugby? No, there was a gap where I stopped playing after secondary school. I was playing basketball, which is non-contact, and I realised that I had this frustration and aggression and I couldn’t take it out anymore. One of my friends, Mark Hutchins, invited me down to play for Old Tottonians. From the first game, that was me hooked. I started on the wing and I think I scored 16 tries that season as I was quick but twice the size of every other winger.

I then got moved to the second row, which I did for years. I only turned to loosehead because a prop went off injured one week against a team I hate and I didn’t want to let them go uncontested. I realised how much I could get away with in the front row.