NEAL Hatley has been a hugely significant influence on me for the best part of ten years, so it was quite amusing, to both of us, that we found ourselves in opposite camps this weekend with London Irish playing Bath.
Hats has just been promoted to head coach at Bath and, with Skivs (George Skivington) leaving for Gloucester, I’ve taken on the forwards coach job at Irish on an interim basis. Hats was my academy manager at London Irish in my first year out of school and he was very clear on what was required to make it in the game. We speak a lot and he has been a phenomenal resource for me as a coach.
Alex Corbisiero was part of that special group and he’s been my best friend in rugby ever since, including being best man at my wedding. But it has to be said we didn’t get off to the best of starts. We shared a room together during the U19 World Cup in Belfast and he accidently trapped my finger in a drawer. I wasn’t best pleased. He refused to apologise so I tried to assert my dominance but he completely man-handled me and that probably set the tone for our relationship.
We shared a house with Tommy Homer and we’d push each other on to a point where, on reflection, it was a bit excessive with all the extras we’d do. We’d work ourselves into a frenzy before first team training sessions to try and make our mark. Unfortunately Corbs and I both had playing careers riddled with injuries and perhaps that played a part.
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