So, what did Father Christmas bring you, Roy?
A pair of shoes, which is very unusual because I can’t normally find my size – a pair of smart shoes. A jumper that actually fitted me – I’ve got very long arms! A couple of CDs, DVDs and a selection box which is standard.

How did you spend Christmas?
Down with my folks, just north of Brighton. Went down there Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day there. They’ve got a farm so I went and saw the animals, played with the dogs and did standard farm things like playing on the tractor! I ate lots of food but unfortunately didn’t get round to drinking at all as I was a bit poorly with the flu.

What is your earliest rugby memory?
That would be down at Worthing Rugby Club, playing a minis tournament for Haywards Heath I think it was. I was 11 at the time and I think we won it. We had a very good minis team at the time and we wiped the carpet, which was good.

What changes have you seen with regards to rugby in schools since you were there?
I think the sport still takes a backseat to football. My school was predominantly a football-orientated school - and it still is now to this day even though we have had a couple of players who have gone on and done quite well. Apart from that I think what has happened this year, with the World Cup, is certainly going to boost rugby in schools.

That is something I was going to ask you actually, do you think England winning the RWC will have a long-lasting positive effect?
Oh definitely, I think it is going to have a long-term effect. It is certainly going to get more and more people interested in the sport – seeing how the England team have done and the success they have earnt.

And what of today’s New Year’s Honours List announcements?
Yes, God bless them. It is all thoroughly deserved - they have done something for the country that not a lot of people have done – like win a World Cup – and it is thoroughly deserved.

Did you get to watch all of England’s games?
We watched the Final before the Bath game. The South Africa game was before Gloucester so I didn’t actually watch any of that, the Georgia game I was doing a Player Appearance down at Windsor so I didn’t watch any of that either - but I always got to catch up because there was loads of coverage of it on ITV, which was good so I can’t really complain.

Did you speak to Will/Jase whilst they were out there?
No, we had some messages come back via Scotty & Evs. I remember the evening before the Bath game that Evs received a text from Will asking him if he had any advice or final words before the game. I think they were taking care of what they had to do down there and so as far as receiving calls from the guys, I am sure they would have appreciated it, but we just let them get on with it.

Why Quins?
I was approached by them when I was at Bedford, which was an honour for me because it was a well-known club that had a good name. It was actually Zinzan Brooke who approached me after I had played them at Bedford. We were 21 points down and nearly ended up winning if I remember rightly. As far as I remember Zinny came on and scored the winning try, which was quite disappointing!

Didn’t you Nice Tackle, him, Roy?!
No! I wasn’t on the pitch at that point, I had just come off.

So they approached me, and I was lucky enough to go on the tour to South Africa with England in that Summer of 2000 and during that tour I spoke to Jase and Will. Will was already on his way, and Jase had obviously been here for donkey’s years so I asked them for a bit of advice – as I did a lot of other players from different clubs as well. It was fairly close to home as well so my folks could come up and watch games, which was obviously a factor as well and so it just seemed like a natural progression and I have loved it since I have been here.

What are the best and worst parts of playing for Quins?
The best part is just playing rugby. You just can’t beat the buzz on a Saturday afternoon – or whenever we play these days! Pulling on the Quins shirt is just fantastic, you can’t knock it.

The worst part is running round the track outside here (we were at the Aldershot training ground) when it is pi**ing it down with rain and you can’t see the other end of the track because of the fog! That’s probably the worst thing – but that is all part and parcel of the game as well, everything you put in during the week makes it worthwhile on the Saturday.

What changes have you seen at Quins since you’ve been here?
This is my third year, fourth season, and there has certainly been a fairly large turnover of players but as Mark has said this year he is very happy with the squad that we have now. All of the 30 players that we have are capable of going onto the pitch in a Premiership match and he has really built the squad up whereas before there were only a couple of players of his choice here, so he is happy with everyone now. It is a very settled squad, it has got a good team spirit whereas maybe a couple of years ago it perhaps wasn’t quite as good as I think a rugby club should be. We all work very hard together – we obviously beat each other up on the training pitch, but when it comes to match days we work very hard together as a team, and as a squad. It is very rare that we go through a game with only 15 people, it is pretty much the 22 these days.

What difference has Vos made as Captain?
Huge. He is a very good mediator between players and staff – he just knits everyone together. He is not a huge talker but he does his leading on the pitch. What he does out there, you know his rugby does the talking and everyone follows him – and that’s all we can really expect from him.

How would you sum up Quins’ season so far?
We started brilliantly and then we had a slight ‘hiccough’ back in around October I suppose, but we are starting to find it again. We are getting back into it again. I think it is a bit of a confidence thing and I think we looked a bit too far ahead with some of the games with regards to where we would end up later, whereas the first 3 or 4 games we just took each game as it came and didn’t look any further than that. Then we are all guilty of getting a bit carried away with ourselves, looking further into the season, Cup Matches etc and thinking ‘right we are going to finish here’ etc but if we take each game as it comes I think that is the way forward.

Where do you think we will finish this season?
Well we’d like to think definitely top 6 but we are certainly aiming for top 3 – that’s our goal at the moment.

There have been lots of new players this season – how do comings and goings affect the squad?
We have got used to it in a way over the last couple of years, but this year especially I think the players that have come in – like the Irish guys for example – they have fitted in brilliantly. They liven everyone up in the squad, they have good banter and guys like George Harder – he’s a class player. He hasn’t played as much as he wanted to but in the dressing room, as well as on the pitch, he is still there helping out. He comes across as quite quiet to the supporters maybe but in the squad he has his banter as much as the rest of the guys!

What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Playing at Twickenham in front of a packed house against Newcastle as you can imagine, and obviously the final up in Reading at the Madejski. I can’t actually remember playing at Twickenham to be fair, the only thing I remember was having our photos before the actual game and it being half full at the time and I honestly don’t remember anything after that! It’s the weirdest feeling. I wouldn’t say it was just focus, it was the whole occasion - it just ran by us so quickly and the next thing I remember is being back at the Stoop and having the welcome we did from all the supporters – and that’s all I can remember, it is quite bizarre! I’d like to remember a bit more of it – I haven’t even watched the video or anything since then so God knows how packed it looked, or was, or how much noise there was – it is just really bizarre!

What was your most embarrassing moment of your career?
Probably a game up in Bedford and I hit the back of a ruck - or a maul, one of the two - and somehow twisted awkwardly and pinched a nerve in my back and at the time I just couldn’t move at all so I ended up getting stretchered off. I went into the physio room and literally half an hour later the nerve had come back to life and I was walking round the pitch to the subs bench having been stretchered off half an hour before! So that is certainly up there with them!

What is the most ridiculous rugby-related thing you have done?
That would be part of my initiation at Loughborough. It was 2 miles from the Students’ Union to Junction 23 of the M1 and part of your initiation was running back naked and arriving at the students’ bar with all our clothes tied leg to leg and shirt to leg hung up outside the Students’ Union. Just as everyone was getting kicked out, we arrived back naked!

(You will note, as I did, that this was given as Roy’s most ridiculous thing and not the most embarrassing!!)

What are your top 3 unfulfilled ambitions?
The first would have to be playing for England. Helping Quins win the Title would be the other most important.

I suggested that scoring a winning try might be the third?
Just scoring a try full stop would be an ambition for me – it has actually been just over 3 years if I remember rightly, not that I am counting or anything! Yes, scoring the winning try in an important final would be the third one – or a rematch of the Tetley Bitter in 2001 against Newcastle and actually getting a result this time. (at this point Roy refused to be drawn on my suggestions that Lander had a left/right arm problem that day!)

What plans do you have for when you stop playing?
I am trying to look into a bit of property development. I’ve just had some stuff done on my place and see myself as a bit of a handyman and jack of all trades so I would certainly like to get into a bit of property development but it is just getting it up and started and getting the finance behind it. My younger brother has just finished Uni and is looking for something to do so I might get him to help out, so hopefully it will be the start of something good.

How do you prepare before a match?
The night before the only thing I try to do it obviously high carbohydrates and the standard nutritional things but I don’t try to think about the game too much. I won’t sleep too much the night before – I try not to run through things in my head but inevitably sometimes it will happen but I generally try to forget about the game completely the night before. I wake up on the morning, as late as possible, get some breakfast down me – cereal, toast, scrambled egg and all that sort of stuff – pack my bag, normally too late, and then walk out the door. I know a lot of people pack their bag the night before and check everything but I have got a ritual of going through everything in my bag in the order that I am going to be wearing them, eg I am going to be wearing my tracksuit to the game, what I need to wear during the game that I actually have to bring myself which is literally my boots, underwear, shoulder pads and gum shield and that’s it – and then the same for after the match. I turn up for the game, I try and leave it as late as possible before I actually get changed, do the warm up and that’s when it normally kicks in and I start getting excited.

How do you celebrate a win?
If we are abroad and we are going to be spending the night and it is a good win we do tend to go out. It is a good opportunity just having all the guys together so we do go out and have a beer, which is obviously a lot more difficult when we are back at the Stoop or at an away game because everyone has got families/friends that they have organised to see so we tend to go our own way on those unless there is actually something organised.

What happens when you don’t win?
Everyone does their soul-searching but there are members of the squad who do try and pick the side up. Yes, we’ve lost and it does affect us all but we’ve just got to get on with it. The result has happened, we can’t change it so we have got to take what positives there are out of a game we do lose and look at the negatives as well to try and put them right. We normally put it right again on the Monday morning when we come into train. We don’t train that little bit harder because we obviously train as hard as possible all the time but we just work through everything as normal.

How do you cope when you feel a ref has made a bad decision against you?
Well obviously that has never happened to me so I wouldn’t know!!! They have a very tough job, they are human so we can’t really say too much about them but at the time we may lose our rag, we may say something that they are not happy with, but again they realise how important it is to us and I am sure they make exceptions to a little bit of cursing and swearing.

Who is your most admired player – past & present – and Why?
Past would be Wade Dooley who played for the Preston Grasshoppers and obviously England. When I first started playing he was up to nearly his 50th cap by then and he was just a mountain, or as they said the Blackpool Tower! He was playing for England and at the time playing in the 3rd Division I think it was at the time, if not lower. I know things have changed a lot since then with regards to going professional, but he just gave 100% every game and he was in my position at the time – back row.

Present would probably be Junior Paramore down at Gloucester. I was lucky enough to play with him for a couple of years down at Bedford and he is the ultimate professional. A very nice guy off the pitch, and gave it everything he has got on the pitch and still going at 34/35. (There then followed a ‘discussion’ between Mr Winters and myself as to how old 34/35 was, which resulted in him receiving a swift kick to the thigh which he wished to be recorded!!) I have got a lot of time for Junior, I am still in contact with him and know his family really well – he is an all round nice guy.

What is your favourite ground, excluding the Stoop of course?
Probably Franklin Gardens I would have said. Leeds has been a nice ground personally for me; we’ve had a fair bit of success up there. We had a great semi-final win against Newcastle a couple of years ago in the European Shield – I like the general atmosphere, when they actually get a crowd there!

Are there any grounds that, as a Player, feel less welcoming?
Gloucester would be one. The amount of abuse you get from the crowd, just during warm-up. If you go out there on your own, like when we arrived there on Saturday the shed was absolutely packed. You go out to inspect the pitch and you just get abused – it is not in a horrible away I suppose, but psychologically for some people I guess they could take it the wrong way I would imagine. It was nice to hear their supporters quite quiet at the weekend though!!

If you had voted in the Quinssa Mid-Season Awards, who would have got your vote for:

Best on-pitch champagne moment: Ben Willis calling for the ball to Strudders – absolute genius, and just about sums him up doesn’t it?! Cheeky little Kiwi come Irish bloke!!

Best off-pitch champagne moment: Ceri Jones at our Christmas party who had had a few too many drinks and claimed to have a really hairy ar*e in terms of being quite hard and he proceeded to tell everyone that he was the hardest man in the Premiership!!

Best bloke: I’d probably go with ‘Couz’ – Ace. He is a lovely man with an absolute heart of gold.

Best newcomer: Simon Keogh

Best supporter: Apart from you, Emma, it would probably be Barbara with her Orang Utan! (For the record, I told Roy that no one had voted for me and his reply was “That’s Shocking” – I KNEW I liked him!!!)

What made you do the Morocco Challenge?
It was just a challenge outside rugby - even though it was still linked with Harlequins. Everywhere I have been in the world – apart from the odd holiday to Tenerife – has been rugby related. I have been to Australia, Canada, South Africa but like I said they were rugby related so you don’t get to see much of the country. It was for a great cause as well – Whizz Kidz – and it was great to put something into it and help those kids, a lot of who had obviously been down to the Stoop. It almost brought a tear to the eye and I really wanted to help them out.

Did you enjoy it?
I loved it – absolutely awesome. I know some people didn’t enjoy it as much as others. (Slight understatement there I think, Roy!) Getting up at 5am the first day and not getting to sleep until about 2am if I remember rightly (if I did actually get any sleep) and then you were up again 1 hour later wasn’t too bad! The worst of it was when we got home and I had a bit of food poisoning from I’m not entirely sure what it was we did eat!! But just getting to the summit was just awesome, it really was. Great views up there, and such an achievement to do it.
Would you do it again?
Yes, definitely.

So will you be doing the Breacon Beacons challenge in June for the BPA?
I didn’t know about it, but I do now, and I will certainly be around hopefully to give it a crack.

What makes you laugh?
People being happy. Like Ace coming into the changing room with his “what’s up dawg?!” or “morning cuz” and giving you a high five and a hug - little things like that. I am a very simple person to please – it doesn’t take a lot.

Who is/are the squad comedian/s?
Ace is certainly up there! Dunney & Simon have their moments too! Dawson makes me laugh all the time – he is absolutely brilliant, he has got such a dry sense of humour. (at this point I make a discovery that Dawson is actually more of a cheese person than a Marmite person as he claimed in his interview with Babs – perhaps we should get McVities to sponsor him rather than Marmite?!)

What do you think of the new shirts?
A shirt is a shirt really for the players, we don’t really notice them. I suppose they are fairly light weight compared to the Mizuno ones we had the first year – they tended to get quite heavy once it was raining/they were muddy. For me personally, they don’t make a huge difference.

Why did you have your head taped on Saturday?
A stray boot hit me the week before at Sale and I had 4 stitches just above my eye (pause whilst Emma does the Florence Nightingale bit and looks at Roy’s eye – any excuse hey?!!) I had the stitches out yesterday so it was just precautionary because the stitches were still in there and I didn’t want it ripping open.

What are your hobbies?
DIY is probably my biggest thing. I just love pottering around with machinery, tools – you name it and I’ve had a go at it sort of thing. If there is an engine to take apart I will take it apart just for the hell of it! I dabble a little bit in golf, but I am absolutely dire! I hold it cack-handed and I am terrible – and I haven’t played for quite a while, but when I did get out there I really did enjoy it Sunday morning after a game and it was just a good laugh.

Did/do you have any nicknames - that you are going to admit to?!
I had one that I got at University – because my name is Royston I got called Roysters and there were some crisps called Roysters. Then I got called Chip, and then Big Chip. Then, along the wood line, I ended up with Chopper as well. (just as well you explained that, Roy – if you had come straight out with Chopper without the explanation my catch phrase could have changed to Nice Chopper, Roy!!) A couple of Uni friends still call me Big Chip or Chopper otherwise it is just plain old Roy, or Wints – nothing exciting really.

Do you read any of the websites/message boards?
Occasionally, when my computer is working! Probably not as much as I should. I look at the forum when I do get on there, and I have been onto the Quinssa site as well – but it is really few and far between. I try and stay away from what people think – I have enough opinions on what is happening around the club so I just keep myself to myself and I am not going to go around upsetting people with my views - that’s just not me, I like to keep myself to myself.

What is your favourite:
Colour: Blue

Drink: I haven’t got one – honestly – I will drink absolutely anything, whether it is alcoholic or not!

Motorbike: Would have to be a Suzuki Hayabusa – because I have got one!

Car: I was about to say a Tractor! I like the big 4x4s but there is not a particular one that I really like. I am a big bike fan, but we just don’t have the weather here and I haven’t touched mine for months – it is really annoying, the poor little thing is stuck in the garage!

Animal: Dog What kind? Labrador – chocolate brown. That’s what we have always had at home, I love them to bits, they are just so cute & friendly. Labradors in general are, but they have to be chocolate brown so they don’t show all the dirt when they come off the farm!

Song: Would have to be a sing-along one – like American Pie

TV Programme: Friends

Film: Something About Mary

Food: I’m not fussy. So eat anything, drink anything? Basically, yes!

Holiday Destination: Canada

If you were an animal what would you be – on field and off?
Onfield. . . (tried to convince me he was a pussycat, but I was having none of it!) What likes confrontation and a bit of a scrap? A Hyena? – yep, on field a Hyena.

Off field, probably something like a Labrador - just a bit of a whus, very laid back.

If money were no object, what would you buy yourself?
A farm out in the middle of no-where with loads of toys – tractors, quads etc.

If you were granted 3 wishes, what would you wish for?
1. To be happy for the rest of my life
2. An England cap
3. I honestly can’t think of a third

Any final words for your adoring fans?!
Just keep on coming along and enjoying the rugby, and giving us the support that you always do, and Be Happy. Thank you very much.

After an hour with Roy Winters, I WAS happy!

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