Down Gloucester way the men that matter on a rugby field are the forwards - they're the big lads who shove in the scrums and do the hard work to win the ball, allowing the backs to score and get all of the glory! Amongst the forwards it's the front row, the two props and the hooker, that are particularly revered, and Vickery's name is right up there in the pantheon of Gloucester props: Mike Burton, Phil Blakeway, Malcolm Preedy, Andy Deacon, Trevor Woodman, and now Phil Vickery.
A farmer's son from Cornwall, Vickery joined Gloucester in 1995, and rapidly earned himself the nickname 'The Raging Bull'. Over the next 11 years he played 145 times for the club, and he was one of Gloucester's three Rugby World Cup winners in 2003, being awarded the MBE for his efforts. In total he also won 73 England caps, and went on two British and Irish Lions tours, winning five Test caps. However, all of this success is overshadowed by one aspect of Vickery's character: he is a 100%, died-in-the-wool, top bloke, revered by rugby fans across the globe - I've never heard a bad word uttered about the man.
If you want to know why he was The Raging Bull, watch this hit in an England shirt - it's on the great French forward Olivier Magne.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGpgZv61Jss
Every Gloucester fan has their special Vix moment, either on the field, or simply talking with him before or after a match - he always had time to chat to the supporters. I have two abiding memories of Vix in a Gloucester shirt: the first was him scoring this marvellous try when the sudden delusion that he was a winger overcame him and he went in from a long way out - props don't score tries like this as the faces of the other Glaws players show!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXHRozZZ2kE
My other moment was archetypal Vix. In a crucial game against Wasps, two of their players, Lawrence Dallaglio and Paul Volley clashed heads in a truly sickening way - the sound echoed across the ground. Although he was in the heat of the action, Vix simply stopped, was the first person to get to Volley, and took out his gumshield to prevent him choking. His work done, he was straight back into the game. Rugby fans remember things like that after they've forgotten the final score (especially true of Glaws fans in that game!).
In a thread on Shedweb, the Glaws fans website, there are memories galore of Vickery's time at the club:
- interviewing him for 20 minutes but having just a few moments of useable material because of his industrial language
- breaking his arm in a game but refusing to be replaced, and continuing to do his job as a prop, including lifting at the line-out
- appearing on the dreadful 'Mr and Mrs' gameshow and confessing to having cried when Take That split up (Phil, tell me you were joking, please)
- a Glaws fan meeting Vix and the other Glaws Rugby World Cup winning prop, Trevor Woodman, in a supermarket - it was in their bachelor days and they were sharing a house at the time. Two props, two trolleys laden with food - they moved to let him through and there wasn't enough space between them such was their size!
A signed photograph of Vickery, Woodman and our third World Cup hero, Andy Gomarsall, in their Glaws shirts on the morning after the Final, dreadfully hung over, on the beach holding the Webb-Ellis trophy, is in pride of place in my study, and the reception they got at the next Gloucester home game after their return will live in my momory forever.
The final word is best left to Bob Fenton who runs Shedweb and who has met Phil on many, many occasions: 'Vix turning up at mini tournaments and happily getting involved, handing out medals, chatting, posing for pictures and so on. A top, top guy. The game is a little bit poorer without him'.
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