By KevinTheB
January 7 2005

This is the first part of a three part interview with Will Green, Wasps's stalwart of the coal face, in his Testimonial Year. Will talks about his formative years to KevinTheB and Barney. There were a few pints of London Pride in evidence. Purely for journalistic reasons, you understand.

 

KtB: OK Will, let’s go.  When were you born, and where?

 

WG:   25^th October, 1973, in Littlehampton.  I was the second child into the family:  Dad’s a farmer, still working the farm in Arundel, which is a mixture of dairy and arable, and my older brother Henry works in the family business with him.  I have a younger sister Charlotte who is doing very well in a career in marketing.

 

KtB: Are you the sportsman in the family?

 

WG: Far from it – my brother is a good cricketer, and my sister plays lacrosse.  Both have representative honours at County level.  My parents have both been very supportive to us all in our sporting progress – they have never pressured us into doing anything, but have been fully behind all we have done.

 

KtB: What about school, Will?  Where did you go, and what did you get up to there apart from sport?

 

WG:  I went to Eastbourne College.  I used to act in the school plays occasionally, never as a lead part but in the supporting cast.  I wasn’t particularly good!  Academically, I wasn’t particularly outstanding; I definitely preferred sport to bookwork.

 

KtB: What were your sports at school, Will?

 

WG:  I tried a few things.  I played hockey to Sussex U16s, cricket to Sussex U19, as well as rugby to England level at school.

 

Barney's note - Will was one of the first Eastbourne players to get representative honours at rugby. He puts it down to chemistry teacher Roger Edmondson, known to all as Doc Ed. At the time, he coached Sussex at under-15 level, and felt some of the Eastbourne boys deserved to be pushed.

 

Of Will, he says "He really was an outstanding sportsman. I remember being at one under-16s divisional trial. Some official was watching and commented on the quality of one of the centres, saying that he had a wonderful pair of hands. The centre in question was Will, and the official couldn't believe he was a prop! On top of his great sporting ability, Will was a very kind lad - totally honest, totally reliable. "

 

KtB: How good a cricketer are you, Will?  One of your former coaches has suggested you were quite good, and may have made this your career as a sportsman.

 

WG:  No, not quite that good.  I was a bit of a Batting Bully through school years and was enjoying taking on school bowlers.  All was going well until we went on a school tour to Barbados, and I was found out against some fast paced bowling on those hard wickets.

 

Barney's note - Will has fond memories of a game against Brighton College, who had a highly rated batsman playing for them. When he came to the crease, Will - fielding at short leg - gave him some good old-fashioned sledging, telling him he would soon be on his way back to the pavilion. The first ball he received was smashed to the boundary. The batsman turned to Will, and suggested that he might be in for longer than had been predicted. The next ball was edged into Will's midriff, and he triumphantly clung on to the catch. To rub salt into the wound, when Eastbourne batted, Will made 159. The Brighton batsman was none other than Alex King, and Will has never allowed him to forget that day.  There is a bench on the boundary at Eastbourne, bearing the names of Will and Ed Giddins (former England cricketer and another Eastbourne Old Boy), in recognition of the fact that they both became full internationals in the same year.

 

KtB: Moving on to your teen years, Will, were you a bit of a tearaway?

 

WG:  Far from it – I was a bit of a goody-two-shoes, really.  I had my moments, but nothing more than an average teenager.  I was Deputy Head Boy, which was a good job – all the glory, but not that much responsibility!

 

Barney's note - another Eastbourne teacher, Charlie Bostock, recalls an occasion when Will came to his rescue in class. "I was a very young and inexperienced teacher, and I had this set of raucous upper sixth-formers to teach. In one lesson, I was really losing control, until Will stood up, told everyone firmly to shut up and let me get on with teaching. After that, I never had any trouble. He could have saved my career!"

 

KtB:  When did you decide that rugby was the sport for you?

 

WG: I think this was a foregone conclusion when I got through to the England U16 squad.  I can remember the U16 squad training sessions at Castlecroft – I really dreaded them, and I know that many of the same age group did as well.  I played for the U18s when I was 17, and got my first representative England cap when I was at school.

 

KtB:  Why Wasps, Will?

 

WG:  Geoff Strange.  I came to Wasps in February 1992 through Geoff’s powers of persuasion.  I remember my first game was against Cardiff Colts – and was that a big step up!  The following year I played for England U21 alongside Paul Volley, Andy Gommersall, Jonny Ufton, Will Greenstock,  John Seaton– we had 10 England schools players in that Wasps Colts side, all brought in by Geoff’s convictions that Wasps were the best side to play for in the south of England.

 

KtB:  Was this an important time for you, Will?

 

WG:  Yes, it was, in many ways.  I took some time off and went out to South African and Zimbabwe in January 1993, played a bit of cricket in Cape Town and played some rugby for Villagers.  It was amazing. Apartheid was ending, they were getting ready for their first democratic elections – I think it was the best time to be in South Africa.  And as a bonus, I met Charlotte, who was also travelling out there.  All in all it was an unforgettable trip.  I came back, and almost immediately went off on a Wasps U21 tour of Canada.  We played in Toronto, Quebec, and a few other venues.  Coming back off that, I decided not to take up my place at Newcastle University but went to Oxford Brookes instead, along with Dugald Macer, who many Waspies will also remember.  We had great times, not pressurised by the Club to any great extent, and were university students doing most of the things that University students get up to.  The highlight of the week was Wasps training on Tuesday evenings – mostly because we got a good meal when we turned up, and that was one of the big attractions at the time!

 

KtB:  When did you first run out as a first team player, Will?

 

WG:  Against Bristol, and scrummed down against Alan Sharp (a Scottish international).  I was very nervous, but I think it went well.  For me, it was a never-looked-back game, although I wasn’t picked again until the end of the season.  I found out for sure that day that I desperately wanted to be a successful rugby player.

 

KtB: Will, did you have anything else in mind before the game went professional?

 

WG:  Well, I did my degree in Marketing and Retail Management, so I suppose that some kind of Sports Marketing with a rugby friendly company must have been a direction I was moving in, but the professional game came about at roughly the same time as I came down from Brookes.  That reminds me, I did my dissertation on the Wasps shop and lent it to someone at the Club a few months ago – I need to get that back!  I nearly went to Richmond as there were better “opportunities” with them, but I’m glad I didn’t.

 

KtB: Let’s take a break, Will.  We’ll come back later and talk about how it was when the game went professional and everything changed.   Barney, a beer for me, and a diet Coke for the prop in the corner.

 

Episode 2 – Wasps Career follows shortly.