Going to a rugby, as opposed to a soccer, public school and being naturally large it was not surprising that I played a game I came to love until a weakness in my spine called a halt. During my final year at public school we had a surprising number of nineteen year olds in the team, whether this was out of a hope that National Service would have ended before call up or because they wanted to play for a winning team, I cannot tell. Suffice it to say we had a winning season and I went home feeling rather pleased, having been the captain for the previous two years.
Our house was opposite the Esher Rugby Football Club ground so it followed that I played for them until I got a call to join the Harlequins, a premier rank English club. This was not until after a memorable game of sevens (seven a side instead of fifteen) when an army major on the same side as me had been given the instruction to tackle anything that moved - and he did, felling several members of his own side in the process.
In the Royal Marines I managed to find time to play rugby on frequent occasions and played for the Corps against the Royal Engineers in 1957 when a future Major General, Julian Thompson, was reserve. Later for Devonport Services I was with Gordon Waddle (later captain of Scotland), Simon Clarke (Wasps and England) and left for a year in the Middle East with 40 Commando, thus missing Dickie Sharp (England) who arrived at the Commando training centre at Bickleigh as a very fit training officer. One occasion when playing for Devonport Services against my future club, Harlequins, I got a mention in the Daily Telegraph after clashing heads against my opposite number in the scrum necessitating a couple of stitches after the game. This was performed by the duty Surgeon Captain who whacked in the stitches and then suggested an anaesthetic in the Wardroom afterwards.
After arriving in Malta and before going to Cyprus on Internal Security duties I was able to be a part of the victorious Army Rugby Team on the Island. Most of the team were Royal Marines and we were led by the giant of an Army Padre, Robin Rowe, who had been capped for Ireland. This time Julian Thompson was our hooker. If you do not recognise his name he was the Brigadier in charge of 3rd Commando Brigade during the retaking of the Falklands.
National Service finished and I was back in the UK for the new rugby season with the Harlequins. My eventual downfall came after a game or two with the redoubtable England second row of Marques and Curry so contorting my back that I had to be helped into my car after a game. My osteopath put a stop to all that. However, I did play for quarter of an hour on the sands of Aden, when aged 30, with a whole lot of nineteen year olds. One cannot really give it up and I received many complaints over the years that I was still playing in my sleep.
Richard Poupart 2011
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