Christian Day
He’s played against the likes of Martin Johnson and Jonny Wilkinson, cooked in front of 10 million viewers in a MasterChef final, but it is the future of player welfare that now has his undivided attention. This is Christian Day’s Rugby Life.
I played at a club called Fylde RFC from the age of seven, it's where Bill Beaumont played. It’s quite a famous club. I was there until I was thirteen and then schoolboy rugby took over. I played every position there was to begin with, I was a lot quicker when I was younger. I even played prop for a little bit.
I was always a good all-round sportsman. I got it from my parents, they were both very sporty. At school I played cricket, golf, did a bit of shooting. I was northwest discus thrower as well, but rugby was my one true love.
I played 350 odd games in my professional career. 226 games in the premiership. I was 19 when I made my first team debut for Sale against Newcastle when Jonny Wilkinson was at the height of his fame. I was completely out of my depth, but I think I actually did alright on the day. I have won a few trophies over the years, a Premiership title with Sale and with Saints – quite a few European trophies as well.
Physicality never bothered me, I’m a big guy. I played against that Leicester Tigers pack at the start of my career, with Rowntree, Martin Johnson, Ben Kay – that was probably one of the toughest teams I played against, but I was never physically intimidated.
I had a lot of respect for some players. It was more about the quality of players that you would come up against. People like George Kruis for example, he was just a really good rugby player but really smart as well. He worked hard, played similar to me, we always enjoyed playing against each other, and I played with him a little bit when I was around the England squad.
We once had to wait for Chris Mayor to leg it back down the tunnel and put his match shirt on. He ran out on to the pitch in just his bib. It was when I was playing for Sale, we used to live together at the time. Philippe Saint Andre was the coach at the time, and he didn’t take kindly to that kind of thing.
I ended up on MasterChef by a complete spur of the moment. It was a mad experience; I had never done anything on TV like that. They make it as tough as possible: throw you in a room, don’t tell you where anything is, and you just have to work it out and go for it. They just want things to go wrong, they don’t want to see people cook stuff, they want disaster.
You’re not allowed to tell anyone you’re on the show. My family were getting suspicious of where I kept disappearing. Then the show aired during lockdown, it was the biggest TV audience it had ever had, one of the episodes had nearly 10 million views, so people probably know me better from MasterChef than they do from playing rugby!
When I was in the academy at Sale, they sent us to work in a hotel, that’s where I learned to cook. We had this mad French chef who let us loose in the kitchen for about five weeks and we had to cook for the first team. That’s where I learned all the basics. Then someone bought me a Jamie Oliver cookbook. I met him recently and got him to sign it.
I landed my first job with the Rugby Players Association the year I retired. I was heavily involved as a player representative for six or seven years and then voted in as chairman for three years. I wanted to stay involved with rugby and had always been fascinated with the stuff that happens off the field. For me, it’s all about trying to engage more with the players and bring in their expertise.
I was recently elected to General Secretary which is the top role in the organisation. That happened three weeks ago. It’s all about improving the position of players and making rugby in this country as good as it can be.
A lot has been thrown at rugby union in the last few years, let’s be perfectly honest. There has been a lot of bad news, but hopefully now we are turning the corner. We’ve got a lot of big agreements that are due for renewal in the next eighteen months.
Athlete representation is crucial. Some players need help, some players fall on hard times or experience difficulties. That’s where an organisation like ours or a trade union will provide the help that players need. From the players’ perspective, we’re there to drive things forward in terms of the standards, staying up to date with welfare considerations, making sure players remain engaged with the decisions that are made around that.
I’ve been doing a bit of commentating in the last eighteen months. I really enjoy it. I like talking about the sport and the opportunity to promote it. The World Cup is on the horizon in September, and I think that is going to break some boundaries, I’m looking forward to seeing it play out.
I’m hoping to get a nice holiday this year. I haven’t had much time off with the new job, so to have a bit of family time in the sunshine will be nice.
