Bath hooker Lee Mears is hoping to be a key figure in England’s plans for the Six Nations. He spoke exclusively to www.rucked.com
What you up to Lee?
Just on my way to training. Although I’ve had a nightmare, I went to a charity dinner for the Six Nations in London last night and while I was there someone broke into my car. It was in the hotel car park!
Did they take much?
They took my wallet, which must have fallen out of my pocket into the foot well, and that had a few hundred quid in. They also smashed the window. The thing was, we had four lads at one o’clock in the morning wanting to get back to Bath – we had training the next day too – and it was just a hassle, we had glass all over the seats. I’ve spent today cancelling cards and trying to get money out of the bank. They asked for a driving licence to prove my identity but that was in my wallet too! It’s painful…
Other than that, how are things?
All’s good, very good. Bit upset about losing Steve Borthwick next season though…
Was it a shock?
Well we know he’s a very intelligent chap and likes a challenge – he even managed to do a degree while playing full-time rugby [in social economics or something]. And I think that after ten years and having been captain, he just needed a new challenge. We all respect his decision but you hate losing someone like him – I’ve been playing alongside him since I was about 18.
Think Barkley will follow suit…
I don’t know, he’s got a lot of different problems himself – I just don’t know, you never know. But he’s playing the best rugby I’ve seen him play so I guess it’s just about whether or not he wants a move or if the cash will entice him away.
And you’re happy…
Yeah, I’ve been at Bath for ten years and got my testimonial coming up and I’m enjoying pushing for bigger honours…
Steve Meehan seems to be doing a decent job…
You can’t praise the guy enough. He and Mark Bakewell came in at short notice and inherited a side and spent the first part of the year getting to know us. Because we lost everyone apart from the fitness coach, they had to find out all our strength and weaknesses – we basically had two new guys who didn’t know us from Adam. But we did manage to get to the Challenge Cup final.
You tend to get to a lot of finals but not win them…
Hopefully we can put that right under the new man. It’s frustrating to always be in a final and lose but at least we’re not languishing in the bottom of league and out of competitions.
What’s the aim for this season?
Initially to get back into the Heineken Cup and get as close to the top four as possible. But as the season has gone by we now want to win the league. We effectively won it a few years ago but we lost the final so we know it’s not about finishing first but being freshest at the end of the season. We’ve been rotated this season and while at first we didn’t like it, it showed against Gloucester that it works.
How big was the Gloucester win?
Ah massive, there’s a lot of pressure whenever we play them at the Rec because they haven’t won here for so long and we don’t want to be the first team to do that. They’re flying high at the top of the league and they definitely deserve it because they’ve been playing the best rugby so to bring them down was a nice thing. We’re still behind them but hopefully we struck a mental blow.
What about your own season?
It’s good, I’ve enjoyed playing games and picking up man of the match against Gloucester was nice. I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and hopefully I’ll get rewarded in the long run.
Was it tough being at the World Cup and not playing much?
It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever been involved in – the atmosphere was amazing, the French held a fantastic World Cup. England beating Australia and New Zealand losing to France on the same day in the same city made for the best rugby weekend I’ve ever been involved in, even though I was there as a glorified supporter. And when I was over there, every time I got onto the pitch I didn’t tarnish my reputation.
When did you figure you weren’t going to be playing?
I did know something was up when we lost heavily to South Africa and they didn’t change it around to fit me in. I thought that if I didn’t get in soon then it was going to happen. I played against Tonga and did as well I could although when I wasn’t selected against Australia I figured they weren’t going to change it so I could sit back and support the boys the best I could.
So the aim must be to get in the England side now then?
My number one priority has always been to play well for the club, get the club into a good position and that’ll put me in the shop window. The club are now in a good position and I’m still reasonably young though and I always try to improve every year. I’m maturing like a fine wine…
