Players / My World

David Strettle

/ Harlequins and England

Stretts was born in Warrington - that's rugby league land - he played the 13 man game from the age of five and took the journey to union via Manchester City, Everton and Crewe Alexandra, where he had football trials. When he had the phone-call from England he thought they were joking as he'd only played six months of Premiership rugby.

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I watched the World Cup Final at The Stoop. I was with all the boys in the Legends Lounge after a Quins game. It was free booze so I couldn't complain…

 

It was a shame they couldn't go all the way They had already won their battle before the final by proving their critics wrong. No one thought they'd get anywhere near the semis, let alone winning it!

 

It was hard watching the build-up. I wanted them to get to the final because they are my mates and I was thinking if they win it, I want it to be something worth missing.

 

Meeting Andriy Kanchelskis was a huge deal for me. He was my hero as a lad and being a massive Man Utd fan. I remember meeting him when I played at Goodison Park. So that was my non-rugby claim to fame.

 

I tried pursuing a football career I got to a good level with several different clubs but it never happened, then rugby took off. I've read somewhere, I chose football but there was never a choice, so I just carried on with the rugby.

 

I wanted to put university first. Sale Sharks offered me an academy contract but it's not like football where they are throwing big money at you.  I was lucky enough to hang around with lads a couple of years older, who had gone down that route and ended up dropping out of university instead of making their decision because of rugby.

 

If I wasn't playing rugby I'd always do something within sport. I enjoyed biology at school and I fancied working off coral reefs and doing marine biology, but when I learnt you could do marine biology off the Mersey, it lost its glamour.  I like the idea of being a teacher.

 

I wouldn't mind being the size of [Samoan bulldozer] George Harder . He's absolutely massive and you see a few lads, who are 18 stone and fast, I'd love to play rugby being that big. They must have a field day sometimes.