Players / My World

Steve
borthwick

/ Bath and England Captain

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Learning is a never-ending process. As rugby players we can get closed off. We tend to circuit with the same guys, we socialise with those guys, but when you’re within that team environment all the time, you can learn from those individuals, the coaches and the people around you.

 

We all have a responsibility to try and develop ourselves personally I don’t mean purely in rugby terms, but outside of the game. There are a lot of crossovers in all facets of life. It’s a case of getting out what you put in and there’s a lot of responsibility on individuals to go out and try and learn to help the team and help themselves personally.

 

It’s also about the people you tend to surround yourselves with Experience is obviously a huge thing.

When I arrived at Bath, it was packed full of people who had been to the very top of the game or were currently playing at the top, so it was a great opportunity for me to glean information off of them, none more so than the ex-Welsh captain Jonathan Humphreys.

 

You can find inspiration from a whole host of things. It’s not necessarily someone who stands up and makes great speeches or writes great things, I think that people who have displayed something that I would like to display or something that I would like to be a part of is what inspires me.

 

It’s what makes me who I am It’s a strength as well as a weakness, but competitiveness. I’ll always strive to get to the next level whatever the goal is that I have set for myself and I’m always determined to accomplish it.

 

Not everything is a contest Maybe I should try and back off occasionally. When you are given a responsibility, you do it to the very best of your ability, it’s not about backing off in that sense, it’s about fulfilling your responsibilities.

 

Usually I get through a book a week My favourite is Shantaram by Gregory Davis Roberts - it’s the No. 1. It took me longer than a week, it’s about 900 odd pages. I read it during the World Cup.

 

Soaring through the air or face deep down in mud

It was one of best game’s I’ve ever been part of.
The game against Gloucester at the Rec in January was like a mud bath. I don’t mind the mud, but the huge physical encounters, like against Bristol, the collisions were massive, but when there is an opportunity to nick a line-out ball that helps the team, such as in Italy that is also one hell of a feeling.