Very happily in the red

STUART WALMSLEY finds out just how tough it is to keep your place among the elite of European club rugby

PERHAPS Alex Crockett should thank his red hair for such a prominent playing role at Bath Rugby this season.

One could say the Queensland coaching trio have had their selection influenced by the 23-year-old's ginger locks bobbing around the training paddock at Lambridge, maroon being the official sporting colour of the fiercely proud state in north eastern Australia.

But it probably has more to do with the former Chippenham junior's outstanding form so far this campaign in the Zurich Premiership and Heineken Cup, playing mainly in the number 12 jersey.

He is definitely in favour with the Aussie coaching trio of John Connolly, Richard Graham and former Wallaby hooker Mike Foley.

"Crocks has really risen above the injuries and everything else going on at the club over the last few years and has done extremely well," said assistant coach and backs' mentor Graham.

"Alot of it is down to his application, whether on the training paddock or in the gym, you can't question it and that's been important to the coaches.

"He's also a very intelligent player, he reads the play better than most and the fact you know he's going to deliver a consistent performance for you is a big reason why he's kept a starting spot."

A position in the centres at Bath Rugby is probably one of the most hotly contested in the Zurich Premiership, but this season Crockett has made it his own.

With the likes of Former Springbok Robbie Fleck, South Africa A and Currie Cup star Frikkie Welsh, England World Cup winner Mike Tindall and England A speedster Andrew Higgins in the mix it's hardly been a walk in Bath Botanical Gardens for the former Chippenham junior. But when the starting side run out against title holders London Wasps this Saturday, he'll be the one wearing the number 12 jersey.

Injuries to key players have also helped his cause throughout the season, but in his fifth year at the club, the 23-year-old has now started 14 of the 21 games in league and cups, a popped shoulder and ankle injury the main reasons for any time on the sideline.

Brought up in North Wraxall, Crockett played rugby from age seven, starting with Bath minis.

He played U14 and U15s rugby for Chippenham while a pupil at the Sheldon School and was sponsored by Bath to do his A levels at Colston's Collegiate in Bristol, winning England's premier U18 school's competition the Daily Mail Cup with them in the 1999/00 season.

Part of the deal was that Bath would have the offer on Crockett as a player on his first year out of school, and they chose to take it up.

"It was really a contract made for me," said Crockett

"I had a great opportunity to get good A-levels, then I came straight out as a full time professional and played with my heroes like Jeremy Guscott and Andy Robinson. I was 19 years old and playing with my idols."

Like many young sportspeople who find themselves training and playing alongside champions early in life, half the battle was convincing himself he had the right to be on the same patch of grass.

"I had to keep telling myself that I belonged here, that I was worthy of a place.

"You had to earn your stripes and the respect of those senior players, you weren't playing with them a lot, so you just made as much noise on the training pitch as possible to get noticed."

"The next few years I just stuck at it, played as well as I could, and the rest takes care of itself."

Almost five years later the former England U21 international lives with his girlfriend of a year-and-a-half, Gemma Ryder, in Marshfield.

While he didn't really have a guaranteed place in the first team until last season when the England stars were away lifting the William Webb Ellis trophy in Sydney, he has very much settled into the professional rugby lifestyle.

"I played a good 20 games last year while the World Cup was on and really cemented my spot. But that first year out of school the U19 side was sort of half professional players and half amateur.

"After that first year in of full time rugby, I found it really hard to go back to study, and I just never got around to it. You just get into a routine I guess, full time pay, full time rugby, it's a job."

But unlike almost every other occupation in the world, your value as an employee tends to decrease as you get older.

Crockett is only 23 but already has an almost endless list of ailments he carries onto the field. Younger players are getting bigger, stronger and faster as the newly established academies at premiership clubs begin to churn out lads capable of playing at the highest level at the age of 20 or even younger.

Where once you could bank on a 15-year career at the top level of club rugby, barring serious injury, the current rigours of the game can cut it down to ten or 11.

"There used to be a big difference between the forwards and the backs on a rugby field, but you look out now and they're almost the same size, the guys with the higher numbers on their backs are just quicker.

"You run out each week and more and more you're lining up in the centres against some 19-year-old who is six foot four and has speed to burn. You just think, God, not another one."

There are 43 on the playing roster at Bath this season, and with the severe injury crisis, they have needed almost every man. Before Bath's final Heineken Cup match at Bourgoin in France on January 15 the physiotherapy room was bursting. England international Mike Tindall (foot and shoulder) headed up a lengthy casualty list that also included David Flatman, (Achilles) Lee Best (groin), Gareth Delve (foot), Spencer Davey (knee), Robbie Fleck (calf), Rob Hawkins (shoulder), Jonathan Humphreys (heel), Joe Maddock and Martyn Wood (both hamstring).

Add to that list the fact that Andrew Higgins (ankle), Matt Perry (hamstring) Lee Mears (head) and Duncan Bell (back) were also borderline and it's possible head of sports medicine Chris Mallac and his team of physios could be taking stress leave before the season is out.

Players have been forced into unfamiliar positions, scrum-half and former Wootton Bassett junior Mike Baxter played their last Heineken Cup game in France on the wing. But while they are out of Europe, on the whole they have eked out results, currently lie fifth in the Premiership and are in the semi-finals of the Powergen Cup.

"I'm spending one-and-a-half hour slots in the physio room having treatment on niggles. I've never seen the injuries this bad," Crockett said.

Some may think they might not mind getting paid to lie in a physio room for extended rubdowns every day, but the implications of serious injury go far beyond the hours of treatment.

While Crockett is contracted at Bath until the end of next season, the club are unlikely to offer a new deal to an athlete who can't play. He may be the constant brunt of jokes from pals with conventional jobs about how easy his lifestyle is, but one hit in the wrong place, and it's all over.

Bath are big on players having something to fall back on, it's a mantra academy boss Frank Butler beats relentlessly into his young charges. While Crockett came through before this influence, he is still conscious of the need to diversify.

"Adding another string to your bow is crucial and I've been doing coaching courses and certificates over the last couple of years."

Crockett's eyes were seriously opened in this area when former Australian rugby league star Tim Brasher spent time at Bath in late 2003.

After a long and illustrious career in the number one football code down under, including a seven figure cheque for staying with the establishment during the Super League split, Brasher tried his hand at union before caddying for Aussie golf star Terry Price on the 2004 European PGA Tour.

"It was unbelievable what he was doing, just swanning around the world trying his hand at all different sports.

"He earned a lot in the Super League split, and had investments in property, horses, everything, all over the place," he said.

But Brasher is not the only interesting character Crockett has come across during his travels.

While in Bath's pre-season tour of South Africa last year, he found himself in the same bar as Wendall Sailor and the majority of the Wallaby squad after their final tri nations match against the Springboks in mid July.

"I'll never forget meeting him," he said.

"Apparently the first thing he said when he came across from rugby league and walked into the Queensland rugby dressing room was "Big Del's gonna shake things up round here."

Socially, rugby is almost unequalled by any other sport in the world, it's as well known for the craic off the field as much as the action on it, but Crockett said this is one of the ways the game is changing for the worse at the highest level.

"One of the best things about rugby is meeting people and having a laugh after the game, but because of professionalism it's changing slowly.

"At our game in Bourgoin last week we shook hands after the match and were straight on the plane without even seeing the other team again. We did have a Friday game the week after and had to get back to start the recovery, but I'm certainly not a fan of it.

"When Newcastle came down here (to Bath) they left straight away, and so did Leinster, it's a shame it's going like that, it's not really in the spirit of the game."

Professional rugby player doesn't automatically equal teetotaller, and the Bath lads certainly have a few scoops after the match on a Saturday, but it has to be kept in check.

"I can't remember the last time I had a beer midweek, or had a drink at Christmas," Crockett said. You can't give anyone the edge to take your spot and staying in good nik is a huge part of that."

It's definite none of the stocky centre's 14-and-a-half stone of bulk is beer gut, and while Crockett is all for camaraderie in the sport, he said hanging around with the same guys for nine months of the year has its ups and downs.

"There's plenty of practical joking within the squad, it can wear a bit thin, but you get so used to being in that squad environment.

"Then you retire and it's just you, your missus and your dog. I guess that's why a lot of guys go into coaching, they want to get back into that club atmosphere," he said.

"It's competitive but friendly, and a lot of it depends on the personalities of people.

"When Robbie Fleck signed, Tinds (Mike Tindall) and I were saying we were going to smash him at training to keep him out of our spots, but when we got here he was a sound guy, and we were down the road buying him a beer instead."

After playing for England in the first official U21 IRB World Cup in 2001, Crockett can realistically eye off at least an England A jersey if he holds his starting place, but he is conscious to not getting too far ahead of himself.

"You've got to protect your immediate interests.

"Sure, I'll take international honours if they come along, but you don't set your goals too far away.

"It would be easy to lose sight of the target of playing first team rugby at Bath, and with the playing staff around here, I can't afford to take my foot off the pedal."

Bath line up against London Wasps in the Zurich Premiership this week, but after being pulled out of the team at the last minute for the Powergen Cup semi-final victory at Sale on Friday night with an ankle injury, coaching staff seem confident he will be part of the action on Saturday despite a bout of flu.

Probably the best person to judge how easily he'll lose his place at Bath is his mother Karen Crockett, and she says her youngest son just doesn't have a quitter's character.

"The bigger the event or the more pressure there is on something he is trying to achieve, the more he seems to rise to the occasion," she said.

If her son's rise continues at the current rate, that occasion could well be something very impressive indeed.