Players / My World

Richard Wigglesworth

/ Sale and England

---

A career-ending injury is always in the back of your mind. It happens more and more in today’s game and touch wood, I hope it doesn’t happen to me.

 

Poor refereeing really gets to me. They’re often jabbering in your ear about something, although I probably deserve it most of the time. As a scrum-half you’re supposed to be a pest and constantly annoying everyone, it comes with the territory. That’s the best part of the job.

 

I’m very loud. I struggle to turn the volume down on occasions. We went to Biarritz with Sale about three years ago, and unlike Sebastien Chabal, I’m not much of an afternoon sleeper, and while he and a few others were having a nap, apparently the only voice they could hear down the corridor was mine, so I feared for my life by the end of the trip.

 

My idea of rugby purgatory is being a forward. I wouldn’t play the game if I had to do what those guys do.

 

I’d love to have been Geoff Hurst in 1966. You’ve done something right when you score a hat-trick in the World Cup Final, and I don’t think you’d be working for the rest of your life after that.

 

David Beckham doesn’t have a bad life He seems to have it made - nice cars, big house, wife & kids, plenty of cash - I’m sure I could cope with that if I had to trade places with anyone in the world.

 

I spend a lot of money on golf equipment. I’m probably starting to get a bit obsessive, but golf is definitely my biggest luxury. I haven’t played with any of the England lads yet, but Sean Fox and Christian Day are both good players at Sale.

 

I don’t afford myself too many indulgences. I’m a savoury man, I love crisps, I had a meeting with the dietician and he told me to steer clear of them.