THERE’S A multiverse dimension out there somewhere in which Henry Arundell is not a defence-dizzying international outside back, but rather standing at the foot of the corporate ladder. Had he leapt at another chance, maybe things would be very different.
As he explains to Rugby World, he’d tried the university thing, briefly taking history at UCL, but he couldn’t balance it with rugby commitments at London Irish. So he switched to an Open University course. But there was one other way.
“I had options to possibly get a scholarship to go to America,” he says. “Because they want the game to grow. There was a genuine conversation of: ‘Is that an option you should take?’
If you go to an Ivy League university and play rugby, you get your fees paid for, you get tuition at one of the biggest universities in the world. Maybe you finish uni and you get an incredible job somewhere. You could become the next entrepreneur. But it’s kind of like, hmm...
“That was never my dream. As a child it was always to be a professional rugby player. To play for England. Play for the Lions. Play at World Cups. That kind of thing. So I knew that if I’d ever done that other side of things, there would always have been something inside of me thinking I cheated myself, that I didn’t try it, that I didn’t give it a go.”
The daydream of this only really happens because we ask him what life might be like had he seen what was behind door number two, rather than the one he chose to run through. We can speculate all we want, but the reality has already been a lot of fun.
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Denne historien er fra August 2023-utgaven av Rugby World.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
"I remember getting eating guidelines for Christmas Day!"
CHRISTMAS, the most wonderful time of the year? Not if you’re a professional rugby player it’s not.
Rugby firsts
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THE JOHN FISHER STATE SCHOOL RUGBY FESTIVAL
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The Making Of Robbie Henshaw
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RG SNYMAN
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BENHARD JANSE VAN RENSBURG
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RUGBY RANT
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"Welsh rugby treats players like pieces of meat, not assets"
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"I don't believe in dinosaurs – the boys think it's nuts!"
The Exeter Chiefs hooker talks Tarmac, time travel and Tyson Fury