Jason Leonard: The Autobiography - Jason Leonard

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I look back, it was a fascinating time in which to begin my rugby career. I was young and surrounded by some of the toughest rugby players around. I learnt so much, so quickly. It was also interesting because we were all still true-blue amateurs – we had to beat the Argentinians before we could go back to our day jobs. I had to take time out from chippying and I was absolutely broke when I got home. There was much talk in the papers of the increasing pressures on players and how unfair it was on them to have to train harder and play harder, but there was no real talk of anything ever being done about it. I really thought the sport would stay amateur for ever – we seemed so far away from anything professional at the time, being given just meagre expenses and absolutely no payment. The RFU took it for granted that you would lose money to play for England.

      At the time, and through the early part of the 1990s, I was seen as one of the new, young, ‘professional’ breed of players who worked hard and trained hard. I was focused on fitness and was just desperate to be the best I could. Some of the older players like Paul Rendall and Jeff Probyn had grown up in an era where you only trained if it was forced upon you, whereas I never felt like that. I enjoyed training because I wanted to be a good rugby player.

      Some of the players at Harlequins noticed how enthusiastic I was, and how much I wanted to improve my game, which I think appealed to them because Harlequins were a strong, ambitious team at the time. Players like Brian Moore and Peter Winterbottom started talking to me about the possibility of me leaving Saracens and going to Quins. Will Carling also asked me if I’d be interested in getting involved and said he thought it would be good for me because of the strength of the pack I’d be playing in – with Moore, Ackford, Winterbottom and Skinner. I knew Will was right and that my game could improve dramatically with those boys. But I told them I’d think about it and wait until I got home to England.

      There was a rumour at the time that Will told me that if I didn’t move to Quins, I’d never play international rugby again. Like most of the rumours about him, it wasn’t true. He told me he’d love me to go to Quins, as did some of the other players, but I was never threatened and Will never suggested that I would or wouldn’t play for England based on which club I played for. The talks I had with the players in Argentina were interesting, but I still wasn’t sure as I headed back to England to think through my options and to start pre-season training with Sarries.

      Argentina 1990 was a disappointment. The England team did not play well and many people believed that the tour should not have gone ahead in the first place. The guys had gone to Argentina off the back of a packed season, and there was the World Cup the following year. There was a feeling that the players would have been better off staying at home and getting some much needed rest instead of getting beaten up in South America! But for me, it was a personal triumph. The papers had been complimentary about me, I’d got on well with the other internationals, earning their respect, and I had an offer to join one of the country’s biggest clubs – not bad for a few weeks’ work.

      When I got back to England, I had everyone ringing me up to find out how I was, how I’d enjoyed myself and what I thought of the other England players. All the Barking lads tried to get me out for a few beers and I have to confess I took them up on a few offers, but I knew that I had some important decisions to make – so I couldn’t go out partying and reliving the tour every night.

      The most pressing decision concerned the Harlequins offer. The chance to join the club was very exciting, but I was determined not to get caught up in the flattery of the offer, and to make exactly the right choice for my rugby career. It wasn’t as easy a decision to make as it might appear for I felt great loyalty to Saracens and was safe and comfortable there – why change and cause myself more aggro?

      I felt I needed to spend time thinking about what to do, but I knew I couldn’t hang around for too long because the Harlequins offer wouldn’t last forever – someone else would be brought in to the front row if I didn’t grab the chance. They needed a prop, and they would get someone else if I wasn’t interested. I sat down and thought about the pros and cons.

      The pros were: it made perfect sense to leave Saracens and join the West London club because there were so many experienced players based there. I only had two caps, but I was already the most-capped forward at Saracens at the time and I knew that it would be harder to learn and progress if I wasn’t surrounded by players who were at the top of the game. If I went there, I would be playing at loose head, Brian Moore would be my hooker, Andy Mullins my tight head; Paul Ackford would be the second row behind me and Troy Coker the other side of the second row. Then there was Mick Skinner at blind side, Winterbottom on the open side and Chris Butcher at No.8. Where on earth would you find a better line-up than that? The choice between Saracens and Harlequins came down to the choice between playing for a pack where I was a big fish in a small pond, or a pack in which I was a small fish in a big pond.

      But there were downsides to leaving – there was the fact that I really liked it at Sarries and after just a couple of seasons, I thought of myself as a Sarries boy at heart. I wasn’t sure how I’d get on playing for a different club on the other side of London – I didn’t know if Harlequins was really ‘me’. It was still an amateur game, so it was important to take into account the way you felt about your club, as well as what it might doing for your career. The other negative factor in joining Quins was all the travelling. I had been used to going to Saracens which was just down the road in Enfield. I could jump in the car from Barking and make it in around 30 minutes but it would take three times as long to get to Quins, and that was after a day’s hard graft lugging tools around and doing manual work. Then I’d have to be on the train back again and I’d get home at around midnight with a full day’s work to look forward to the next day. They were difficult times. I know many people look back on amateurism through rose-tinted spectacles and talk about how glorious it was. Well, not for the players it wasn’t. We all had to combine training, playing and working, and sometimes it was extremely difficult.

      The other thing I had to consider was an offer that Saracens had made me when I returned from Argentina. They were aware that I was being ‘courted’ by other teams, and the Harlequins offer was well known, so the club officials had to think of something to do, to try and keep me. In the amateur days, it was difficult for a club like Saracens to keep a player from a major side because they couldn’t just make a counter-offer to a player and give him more money to stay – none of us were being paid in the first place. In the amateur days, clubs had to think of other ways to entice and keep players. Saracens’ way of keeping me was to offer me the vice-captaincy of the club. It was a flattering offer, but it simply wasn’t what I wanted to do. I was 20 years old and just wanted to be the best rugby player I could. What was the point of diverting my attentions and efforts to captaincy at that stage? The issue of captaincy has never bothered me in the slightest, anyway. I’m a player through and through. When, later in my career, I ended up being linked with the England captaincy, I found that other people became far more excited about the whole thing than I ever was. I know it’s an honour to be captain of a side, but for me, it’s a greater honour to be the best player in that side. Having said that, I was flattered by Saracens, offer, and the fact that they thought so highly of me was an enticement to stay at Bramley Road.

      I was in this frame of mind – totally confused about what to do – when I went to Saracens for the first training session of the season, the first since I had returned from the tour.

      In the end it was the events that occurred at that session which forced a decision out of me. I went along knowing that I’d be the fittest there by a long way because I’d just come back from a hard tour of Argentina. Most of the others hadn’t played since the previous rugby season so they’d be winding themselves back up, whereas I had spent the last few months being wound up to the maximum. The session was odd from the start, mainly because none of the Saracens first team coaching staff were at it – they had gone on holiday. All the players turned up at Bramley Road, where Saracens were playing at the time, and prepared for the session.

      Saracens was a lovely little club back then – very friendly and full of familiar faces. But

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