David Flatman, the former rugby player turned TNT Sports pundit, tells Rugby World all about his firsts in the sport.

A former prop for Bath and England, Flatman is now regarded as one of the best on-screen pundits and commentators in the game.

Here are some of his favourite memories from years gone by…

David Flatman Rugby Firsts

What’s the first game you went to? England v Ireland at Twickenham with my dad, sitting on wooden seats. Rory Underwood scored in the corner and I fell in love. Then I saw Jonah Lomu play France in Paris and that was me hooked. 

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Jonah Lomu is tackled (Getty Images)

First rugby hero? Chris Oti, England winger! Favourite player by a mile. I absolutely loved him and was nothing like him as a player. I pretended to be him while playing at school. 

First rugby boots? Hi Tec High Tops. My dad used to clean them for me. I wanted Diadoras or Adidas Copa Mundials but they didn’t have studs and you couldn’t scrummage in them. 

First moment you realised you could make it? Arriving at Saracens as an 18-year-old out of school and doing live scrums against players like Paul Wallace, who was a British & Irish Lions tighthead. I remember it being hard and knowing it was different, but I survived and then did alright against the other lads. 

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First rugby shirt? An England shirt from 1988. Collars up because my mum made me do it. Tom Shanklin told me I looked like a miniature Clive Woodward. 

First senior match you played in? Francois Pienaar put me in a first-team Saracens game at 18 and said give it a go. That was in 1998 against London Irish in the Premiership. I scored a try and we got a pushover try but I won’t mention it. That was one of my first games against men! 

First international cap? I played Premiership games as a teenager and would hammer fully grown men in the scrum. Then I played for England U18 against Wales and it was brutal. I propped against my mate Gary Powell and it was like a street fight. 

David Flatman of England hands off Omar Hasan of Argentina (Getty Images)

First game as a commentator? A Championship game with Will Chignell for Sky Sports, Cornish Pirates v somebody. At one point I said tighthead when I meant loosehead. In the car home, Phil Keith-Roach, the England scrum coach, rang me to tell me of my mistake. He told me to correct myself on air, which is a lesson I’ve taken with me since! 

First ‘wow’ moment? I played for England against Argentina in 2002. We had Steve Thompson, Phil Vickery, Ben Kay, some good boys. And they were so physically strong in the scrum but we did a job on them in the last few scrums. I remember being full on in a scrum, giving maximum effort.

My position felt perfect but I was beginning to fade and I started to lose consciousness because I couldn’t breathe. Meanwhile the Argentinians were talking to one another. Having a chat! I got up from the scrum and looked at Thompson, who was a freak athlete. He just looked at me and said “F***ing hell!”

Then I looked at Vickery and his ear had exploded and he couldn’t speak. I had my hands on my knees with fatigue but I remember thinking, ‘I absolutely love this’.

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