James Haskell in action

He’s currently sidelined because of a scaphoid injury to his right wrist. Barney Burnham has been checking up on how his recovery is coming along.

JH: Obviously, it’s disappointing to be out of action, but I’ve got to try and do the basics and use what’s available to me. So I’m doing a lot of leg weights and concentrating on speed, because you can always be faster. I’m doing a lot of dynamic work, but I can’t really do anything with the wrist, because I’ve got a screw in it. If I worked that loose, I’d be in a lot more trouble. But I can do a lot of manual resistance work, where I’ve got the fitness coaches applying pressure on my arms and I have to resist them and push them back.

BB: Funny things, scaphoids. It’s a tiny little thing, but it seems to cause enormous damage. It ended Rob Howley’s career.

JH: Yes, Rob had the same injury that I had. It’s a very small bone that doesn’t have a very good blood supply. With Rob, he fractured it and it didn’t heal and the bone died, or atrophied. When I had my op, the surgeon who put the screw in said he struggled to get it through the bone, so the bone must be very strong. It’s one step away from what Rob had. He had something taken from his hip, because the bone had died. Touch wood, this injury won’t end my career.

BB: Have you any clear idea when you suffered the injury? When I first spoke to you about it, you thought that you may have been carrying it for some months.

JH: Well, I played in the Under-21s World Cup in Argentina this summer. I think I might have hurt it out there. I know I went to do weights the next day and it was quite sore, but it didn’t stop me, so I just strapped it and got on with it. When I got back to England, we had three weeks off. I rested it and wasn’t doing anything on it, so when I got back to Wasps, it had just started to heal. Then I played in the Middlesex Sevens and I scored a try. My tries are so few and far between that it must have been such a shock to the system that the bone, which had started to heal, re-fractured!

BB: What’s the current prognosis? How long before you could realistically expect to be back in action?

JH: They’re taking the cast off on November the 30th. Underneath that I have a little girl’s arm at the moment, very withered, so I’ll have to do some more rehab. Maybe it’ll be five or six weeks before I get back - possibly the middle of December. I know I’ll have to play some competitive second team games before I can expect to challenge for the first team. Ideally, I’d like to get myself involved in the Boxing Day game at home to Gloucester, but that may be a bit of a long shot.

BB: Tell me about the Under-21 World Cup. How do those games compare with Premiership rugby?

JH: I don’t think they can really compare that much. You see someone like Tom Rees, who played Under-21s last season, then managed to put in five consecutive first team games for Wasps, and you just look at how much he developed through that.

In the Under-21s, it’s competitive, it’s tough, but it doesn’t have the same professional edge as the Premiership. It’s not as physical and you can get away with a lot, but I think the reason England don’t win so many games at Under-21 level shows that we could do with taking it up to Premiership level. Some of the teams you play against could compete in the Premiership. It has its similarities, it has its differences, but it’s something that it is very good to do. I found that having played five games in a row and then returning for the new season , I came back with a lot more confidence in my own ability. I think that was reflected in the first couple of games I played, but it’s a shame that I got the injury and I couldn’t assert myself a bit more.

BB: Although you’ve already been around for a couple of years, you are still only 20. It must be hard not to become impatient.

JH: Yes, that is something I suffer from quite badly. My parents, my girlfriend, any Wasps supporters who talk to me, they all know that I’m always raring to go. When things don’t go my way, I’m not necessarily that good at hiding it. I always want to make sure that I’m playing. I’d targeted this season to firstly try and get some respect from the people around me. People who know me know that I’ve got quite a loud personality. I’m quite outgoing and sometimes that can be misconstrued. People say ; “James is a funny guy” but maybe they don’t take me quite seriously. So I want to get in some good games for the first team. I’ve had some opportunities - sometimes, I’ve played okay, other times I haven’t played too well. I just wanted to string some games together this season, like Tom did. Being injured just makes it more frustrating.

Being twenty, and working with guys who are a lot older than you, you want to be doing what they’re doing. When you see guys in your own age group going forward and doing so well, it really does hit you. I look around the Premiership and I see all my friends that I’ve played with all doing well. I’m not doing so well and it really grinds on me. I’m not best at hiding it, so I just focus on getting back and using the whole experience to drive me forward.

BB: How helpful are experienced players like Lawrence and Joe to young, up and coming pups like you?

JH: I grew up watching these guys on TV, but I try to be as competitive as I can with them - I have to push them. I obviously have massive respect for them, but you can only stand back in awe for so long, or you’ll never get anywhere. I’m not going to say I’m anywhere near as good as these guys, but I’ve got to keep working and believe I am. Some day, I want to be in the same back row with them.

I’ve done loads of extra tackling with Joe. He’s helped me mentally. Lawrence always has some words of guidance. Wasps are playing me much more at number 8 at the moment, so who better is there for me to learn from? Jonny O’Connor’s also given me plenty of tips on things like clearing people out of rucks. As a young player, you’re like a sponge, trying to absorb every bit of advice you get from top players, but you’ve got to make sure you concentrate on your own abilities. If you’re in awe for too long, everything will pass you by.

BB: Take me back to the first time you played rugby. I understand it all started with a shameless lie from your mother.

JH: Yes, that’s right. I think she was fed up of having me running around the house, causing trouble and driving everyone mad, so she took me down to Maidenhead Rugby Club. The minimum age was seven and I was only five, but she lied about how old I was and that meant I was always playing above my age group. On Sunday, she’d send me off with Dad (who’d take up his customary position, in the bar) and I was sent out to play, so that she had a bit of peace. I didn’t really quite know what I was doing and I remember the first time I ever caught the ball. I ran the length of the field and thought I’d scored a try. I was so excited, I thought everybody was cheering the try , until someone on the touchline said: “You idiot, you’ve touched down behind your own line!”

BB: You obviously took to the game very quickly. You went to Wellington College, where you were a contemporary of Thom Evans.

JH: I was lucky enough to play with Thom in every side at Wellington. He was always the man with the wheels and people were always talking about him. To be honest, when I went there, I’d always enjoyed rugby, but I hadn’t really watched it much on TV and I had no real idea of what I was doing. I didn’t know the nuances of playing and I didn’t know what my position was. They put me at prop, then in the second row. Then one master put me in the back row and started to give me some coaching. I really began to enjoy the game and started to watch it a bit more. Everyone around me had been talking about all these England players, the Lions and the rest of it and I had no idea what they were talking about. So I started to watch it. The more I played, the more of an interest I took in the sport - it obviously helped that I was playing in a successful team. It was when we played in the Daily Mail Under-15 Cup and won the final at Twickenham, that I first really thought that this was something I wanted to do when I was older. I really enjoyed what I was doing and I could see that there was so much more to the game than just doing what I had been doing. I haven’t really looked back since. I never really woke up when I was eight, nine, ten and thought: “I want to be a professional rugby player.” It’s just something that developed. Hopefully, I’ve got the skills that will give me some success - but I’ve got to sort the injuries out, before I start thinking about anything else.

BB: You did something extremely stupid in Poland last year. You thumped Trevor Leota. How daft was that?

JH: It didn’t seem that daft at the time. It all comes back to the point I made about not standing back in awe of the senior players. They’re always pushing you and they all like to get their own way. If you keep stepping back and stepping back, you’re never going to get anywhere. I’m not advocating violence on the pitch, but if an opponent thumps you, you’ve got to give as good as you get.

We were doing a mauling practice, I’d made a couple of errors, Gats was on my case and Trevor was being a bit of a pain. He always likes to get stuck in there, but he did one thing too much and we had a bit of a scrap. I managed to get a couple of punches on him, and he hit me with one, which cut my face. I’ve got a lovely scar to show for it, but he has skin like leather and I only managed to bruise his cheek. I did see him clutching his face afterwards, so I didn’t too badly.

The point is that, in training, you have to stay on the front foot . It’s about practising for the weekend, but you have to have some physicality to prepare you for what happens in match situations. Training scraps aren’t uncommon. Afterwards, he gave me a hug and said: “ I love you, couz. I’m really pleased with you - you stood up for yourself.” You can’t really say any more than that.

BB: Which hurt more - the punch, or the hug?

JH: Definitely the punch!

BB: Let’s bring things back to the present. By the end of this season, what do you hope you will have achieved?

JH: I’d like to earn the opportunity to put three or four games together for the first team. I want to learn each time I play, so I’ve built a platform to work on. Like I said, I want to earn the respect of the people I play with. I’d also like to be involved with England Under-21s again - we’ve got the Six Nations again, and the World Cup - and just put some rugby together, focus on that and get some accolades in the cabinet and just look forward.

BB: And ideally, you’ll be with Wasps for the foreseeable future?

JH: I hope so. Wasps are at the top of the pile, with fantastic experienced players like Lawrence, Joe and Jonny O’Connor. Then there are others, like Tom Rees and John Hart, coming through. All these guys are very competitive and I wouldn’t want to find myself aged twenty-five and still having to make excuses to supporters for why I’m not playing. That’s one thing I don’t like, being asked: “Why aren’t you playing?” I don’t like to have to give excuses for not achieving.

I’ve always supported Wasps - it’s the only club I’ve ever wanted to stay at and play for. It’s not for nothing that people say “Once a Wasp, always a Wasp.” You can never say that you’ll never join another club - things like that are often beyond your own control - but I would love to follow Lawrence’s example and spend my whole career as a one-club man. I hope things pan out in a way that will let me do that - if they don’t, it won’t be for want of trying on my part. It’s a great club and I want to play my part in keeping it at the top, where it belongs.

More photos may be found on : James' website

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