'I'd signed for Salford day before RFU called"

I SIGNED for Salford Rugby League one Monday, and then the following day, Don Rutherford at the RFU, rang me up to say I’d been selected on the bench for England’s game against Scotland.

- PETER WILLIAMS

Normally you get a letter telling you that you’ve been selected but I didn’t receive one and, as no one had given me any indication I was in the running to make the team, I thought my England days were behind me, hence the reason I decided to take up a new challenge. When I told Don that I had agreed to join Salford, he went ‘oh’; it wasn’t a long conversation after that.

I got grief from people saying I had effectively stuck two fingers up to Rugby Union. But it wasn’t like that at all. That upset me because I would’ve never done that to England. Would I have moved over to Rugby League had the letter arrived on time? There is quite a bit of me that says, probably not. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Rugby League because I had six very enjoyable years at Salford and made good friends for life in both codes. But it’s important for me to stress, I never fell out with Rugby Union – how can you fall out with a game that has taken you around the world?

For me, that journey started at Upholland Grammar School (now known as Winstanley College) in Orrell. Our sports teacher was a Sale player called Ken Brown, who understood rugby was a game to be enjoyed. You had Upholland Grammar at one end of the village of Orrell and out the other way, there was the big Catholic school, John Rigby, and they played Rugby Union as well, and the players from the two schools migrated into Orrell and the junior set-up at the club got stronger and stronger.

I was only 17 and still a colt when I made my first-team debut for Orrell in 1977, on Easter Monday away to Pontypool. At that age, I had no fear. It was only when I saw Charlie Faulkner, Bobby Windsor and Graham Price – the infamous Pontypool front row – walking around the changing room, that the situation I found myself in finally dawned on me.