Josh Lewsey - One Chance: My Life and Rugby

CONTENTS

About the Book

One Chance reveals the life and career of one of the most successful English rugby players of all time Josh Lewsey. His experiences as a World Cup winner and crucial member of the victorious Wasps team of 2006/07, as well as having played for the prestigious British Lions, allow him to provide an eye-witness account of the trials and triumphs of a rugby professional. From fears of injury to holding aloft the World Cup trophy, Joshs account contains both elation and despair from his eventful career.

Tracing his early life, his time spent in the army and in postgraduate study, and his love of adventure alongside his dazzling rugby career, Josh is frank and forthcoming about challenges on and off the pitch. His direct and honest approach means he offers real insight into the rugby world and beyond, as well as revealing what it takes to be the very best.

About the Author

Owen Joshua Lewsey was born in 1976 in England, from Welsh blood. As well as being one of the worlds best rugby players and a test British Lion, he holds a Physiology degree from Bristol University, a postgraduate degree in Law and has served as a commissioned officer in the British Army. He left the military in 2002 to concentrate wholly on rugby, and was awarded an MBE one year later for his role in the triumphant 2003 World Cup. He retired from both club and international rugby in 2009.

Praise

Pound for pound, he may well be the best player in British rugby Jeffrey Guscott, The Sunday Times

A great book, especially because Josh has written it in his own words Sir Clive Woodward

Very much his own man, he has dispensed with a ghost, backing himself to write an autobiography that is certainly engaging. Rugby World

ONE CHANCE

My Life and Rugby

Josh Lewsey

This book is dedicated to all the Richard Rivetts, the John Williams, the Dick Davies, the Ross Panters, Roy Jarolds, and David and Mair Lewseys out there the parents, teachers and volunteers who willingly give up their own time to inspire, enthuse, motivate and mentor young people. You are the grassroots of every sport and the fabric of communities, but whats more, you have the power to change lives and fulfil dreams.

Talent is not enough. You must have the right mindset. To get to the top and stay there you have to want to be the best in the world with every ounce of your mind, body and soul. You have to make great sacrifices. You must throw yourself into new experiences to learn and improve continuously in order to develop and hone your skills so that they become second nature. You must make the right decisions on and off the park; and you must not upset anyone important, even if they deserve it.

If you can do all this, then you will have the confidence to trust yourself. This will free your mind to let your talents flow and luck will help you on your way.

Richard Rivett

Introduction

Given that this is an autobiography, it may sound bizarre to state that Ive written this book myself. This isnt a boast, or an apology, but merely to say that I have not, as is often the case with sports biographies, used a ghostwriter. To that end I stand accountable for my thoughts, opinions and views.

Therefore, I hope those who read this will take what I say in the context of how I mean it, which is usually with fond affection. Of course, Im not always right and, reading this years from now, I may be proved wrong in various areas, but Ive given my opinions and version of events as I saw them, straightforwardly and honestly.

Such honesty has at times ruffled feathers, even got me into trouble, but Id like to think that at least I have always been myself and genuine with those around me.

Writing the book has been an enormously enjoyable and in many ways cathartic experience but the biggest challenges have been:

Last but not least, I see myself as having been exceptionally fortunate to get paid for doing something I simply love. I have written this book as a keepsake of my life and career to date but, most importantly, hope to share some of the wonderful times that Ive had living it. I hope you enjoy it too.

Yours,

Josh

November 2008.

Chapter 1

Scallywags

I T SEEMS TO be accepted practice in the world of sporting autobiographies to start with ones childhood, accompanied by some rather gawky pictures at school, a team photo and the obligatory bad haircut, and to give a chronological account from there. So, in time-honoured tradition, thats how Ill begin.

My childhood was, on the whole, not that much different from anyone elses. I was born in Bromley, south-east London, in 1976, the middle child of three boys. I have no affiliation to the place of my birth because we moved to the more homely and comfortable surroundings of rural Norfolk while I was still very young. Having two academic parents, both of them with Welsh roots (my mum, Mair, is Welsh, my dad, David, half-Welsh, half-English), meant that many summers were spent crossing the country and travelling down the M4 towards South Wales, spending time playing in the pools, streams and tributaries of the Twrch, and eating vast quantities of bara brith (Welsh fruitcake). Mamgu (Elunid), our grandmother, was an angel of a woman who took huge delight in filling our young bellies with lovingly prepared home-cooked food.

Dadgu (Emrys), my mothers father, was captain and fly half of Ystalyfera and, though ill with emphysema he had worked in the pits from the age of twelve and, by the time we got to know him properly, Alzheimers, he remained a respected and well-liked man in the local community. It was this link with Wales that perhaps had the most influence on me and my brothers, Tom and Edward. Having been born in the mid-seventies during the time of The King Barry John and other Welsh greats like Gareth Edwards, we were more than a little conscious that rugby was the national pastime in the principality. All three Lewsey boys were to dream of playing the pivotal role of halfback in the magic red jersey of Wales.

Having come from mining stock in Cwmllynfell on the edge of the Black Mountains, my mother was keen to see life outside her close-knit community and left home to study history at Aberystwyth University. Dad was reading physics there and the romantic tale of how they met has gone down in family lore. Playing in the university rugby team in the days when the opposition used to stay overnight, Dad challenged his opposite number to a drinking contest. Having lost, he proceeded to throw up into the lap of the nearest woman, an attractive brunette. Understandably somewhat put out, she didnt speak to him for two years. Some years later, the pair now happily married, Thomas Rhys Tom was born, the first of three boys who would carry on in the same genteel manner!

Two years after Tom was born, I came along, and then in 1979 Edward was born. We were still in London at this point, and my poor mother still recalls being dragged around countless rugby grounds as Dad turned out for Old Colfeians! By the late seventies the family moved to the historic city of Norwich in East Anglia, and thats where my first memories begin. It was a happy time. I enjoyed school and fairly quickly we three boys established ourselves in the local close.