Wasps and England wing Paul Sackey talks to www.rucked.com about reality shows, Shaun Edwards, the World Cup and chocolate Labradors…
So Paul, what you been up to?
Nothing much, just training, doing a couple of appearances here and there…
What sort of appearances?
Just dinners, charity stuff, launches for games, nothing too major – I’m trying to keep a low profile at the minute.
Has the phone been ringing lots since the World Cup?
Sort of, my agent has been getting calls for me to do this or attend that.
Any bizarre requests?
Not really, there was a Big Brother thing a few weeks back. Can’t remember quite what it entailed but it was something like Big Brother but not in a house. I said no though.
Sounds like a good call. Life as a professional though, not a bad job eh?
A lot of people assume it’s not bad, but if you want to go to work and get beat up everyday then do it! But no, it’s not bad, you go to training, you have most afternoons off but in the process body takes a battering. I don’t know how people like Lawrence Dallaglio are still going, the forwards get battered basically 24/7.
Still, it’s a good job…
It’s a good life to live and I’m enjoying it at the moment but I’m pretty sure when I’m 40 or 50 I’m going to feel it. The thing is, right now I can play with a couple of injuries and niggles – you take a painkiller before a game and get on with it because your muscles are good. But when I’m older and not playing or training…
Going back to Dallaglio, must be awesome to play alongside him?
He’s a legend isn’t he? He’s just so inspirational on and off the field. I remember when I was at school, playing at the Rosslyn Park Sevens and he presented me with my winners’ medal and he was probably the biggest player around at the time – I looked up to him and that’s why I started supporting Wasps. In fact, my career started that day because it was at that tournament I was spotted.
A decade or so later and you’re at a World Cup?
Yeah… oh hold on, the dog’s gone… ‘Voycy, can you take the dog for a sec?’ Sorry about that…
No problem, you’ve got a dog then?
Yeah, I’ve got a chocolate labrador but that was Voycy’s that went – he’s got a black Labrador.
Ah, presumably you mean Tom Voyce? Is he your flat-mate?
Yeah.
So, the World Cup…
Yeah – it was the best part of my rugby career, it was just amazing. It was disappointing not to start the first game, but then I started the second and then there was the South Africa game and, as everyone knows, we had a little chat and it started going uphill and we carried that through to the final. There was a lot of pressure on us, especially as people had been saying that potentially we were the worst England side to play in the World Cup, so we proved a lot of people wrong by getting to the final.
What was the bond in the squad like?
Including all the warm-up games, we were away for about four months so there was an amazing feeling among the boys, we wanted to gain the respect of each other. Wanting to make each other proud was a major factor in the way we came together.
Was it hard being away from home for so long?
It was tough, especially I’m really a ‘home’ person. I like to be able to go out for a meal, go see my parents, go see my girlfriend… I love the boys to bits but I don’t want to see them for seven weeks straight and because we had to go everywhere with a police escort, it was hard to chill out. At least we had our own rooms though, sharing with someone would’ve broken me.
If you did have to share, who would have been the worst room-mate?
Ha ha, Mark Regan! I can’t really say why, but it would be Regan – I love him, but he’d annoy me the most!
Back on the home front with Wasps – good win at Munster last week, are you back on track?
I think the Gloucester game the week before got us back together – we were down in that game until the last 15 then came back to win. We did the same against Munster but Wasps never give up – in Lawrence we’ve got an awesome motivator and we’ve world-class players and we know we can challenge any team when we’re at our best
Another toughie this week: Scarlets away?
It’s going to be immense. A Welsh crowd, a big side, a bit of history between the two sides and they lost last week so they’ll want to get back on track. To go and win at Llanelli is a massive achievement so it’s going to be an amazing contest. But if we get everything right, we can beat anyone in Europe.
Finally, the Shaun Edwards issue – has there been much talk of him going to Wales?
No, there’s not been much banter, but Shaun’s world class so he probably gets offered loads of jobs each year. If he wants to go he probably would have gone ages ago. I can’t speak for him but he’s professional and at the moment he’s be focussed on Wasps and wanting us to do well. I don’t listen to rumours.
How big a blow would it be he if he left?
It would be massive – he’s one of the coaches that got me to where I am today on the international front. We spent a lot of time working on various areas of my game and he’s probably one of the backbones of the club so it would be a massive loss if he went.