It is fair to say that Andy Goode does not conform to type among the hulking, lean, muscle-bound professionals of the Aviva Premiership. He does not wear a GPS device during matches, for a start. “They feel restrictive when I’m kicking,” he says. “But it also means they can’t get any data on how slow or how far I’ve run.”
Diet and nutrition are things that he has always viewed as being of peripheral importance to the preparations of a fly half. “I’ve always enjoyed a beer, enjoyed my steak and chips and not worried that my body-fat scores might go up by 0.1 per cent,” he said.
“I’m still trying to play with a smile on my face
On top of which, he is supposed to have retired by now. His move from Wasps to London Irish proved short-lived after operations to his knee and shoulder last summer, so he hung up his boots in September. Four months later, he found himself back on a rugby field when Newcastle Falcons were suffering an injury crisis among their fly halves.
Since his return, the Falcons have won three home league matches in a row to lift them up to tenth place and a fourth, against Worcester Warriors this evening, would ease their relegation fears . Goode did not think that he would be capable of playing 80 minutes, but has now been nominated for the Premiership’s player of the month. A welcome reminder, in the midst of a Six Nations in which brutish force is the weapon of choice, that the game has a place for those whose calling card is brain rather than brawn.
It was a Monday morning in December and Goode was walking Megan, his dalmation cross, near his home in Gerrards Cross when the name of Dean Richards, the Newcastle director of rugby, came up on his phone. Goode presumed that Richards, his former coach at Leicester Tigers, was just ringing to chew the fat. Then the question was sprung: “How do you fancy coming out of retirement?” The response was brief and to the point. “Absolutely not,” Goode said.
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Since his move from Wasps to Irish had been aborted, after operations to his knee and shoulder last summer, Goode had settled into a comfortable routine. Once Carolin, his partner, had left for work, Goode would take his 12-year-old daughter, Ella-Grace, to school, then go for brunch at his favourite café in Gerrards Cross. “I’d always have the same, breakfast burrito, side orders of black pudding and hash browns, then go and take Megan for a nice walk,” he said. “That was the routine that Dean was interrupting.”
It was not just the brunch that Goode was concerned about forsaking, though. Like many 35-year-old sportsmen, the most appealing aspect of retirement was being able to spend time with his family. “Dean got more persuasive, but I told him that I didn’t want anything to affect my home life,” Goode said. “He said that we could work around that. So I had a chat with a few mates, my parents, my partner and my daughter. It was so important that Ella-Grace was behind it. It was a risk for me, it was a risk for Newcastle. But we decided it was a risk worth taking.”
So those mornings now involve a car picking up Goode at home at 6.30am to catch the 7.35am flight from Heathrow to Newcastle, where the airport is only a five-minute drive from the Falcons’ Kingston Park ground. “I’m there for 8.45am, we have a meeting or start training at 9am, so it works well,” Goode said. “My flight’s only been delayed once and I missed a weights session then, so that was no bad thing, either. I usually get the 2.30pm flight back, so I’m at home with a cup of tea and a biscuit by 4.15pm, time to make dinner for when Ella-Grace is back from school.”
After four months of retirement, during which his most strenuous exercise had been strolling around a golf course, Goode made his comeback for the Falcons’ A team at home to Leicester A on January 4. “My first touch was our kick-off, it was raining and blowing a gale, and my kick sailed straight into touch,” he said. “I had another kick-off a few minutes later and that went out on the full as well. Then we had a 22-restart and when I kicked that into touch, I stopped and thought to myself, ‘What the f*** am I doing here?’
“I desperately didn’t want my last experience of the game to be a miserable one. But I was committed to the contract, the coaches knew I was rusty and I had to see it through.”
“I said two things to Dean. One, I didn’t sign up to play a full 80 minutes. Two, where’s the beer?
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By coming back to the game, a few months older and a few pounds heavier, Goode also knew that he was making himself a target for the finely honed athletes on the other team. Then again, as he says, it is rarely any different for a fly half. He chuckles at the furore last week over England’s plans to target Jonathan Sexton.
“The only No 10 in my whole career that we’ve not thought to be a weaker defender is Jonny Wilkinson,” Goode said. “And even then, we’d try to run squarely at him, to manipulate him. Now I know they’ll target me because I’m old, fat and slow. But if someone runs at you, you’ve got to front up.”
His debut for Newcastle’s first team was off the bench in the 20-15 defeat by London Irish, which left the Falcons bottom of the Premiership table. He was then given a fortnight’s break, which allowed him time to dedicate to training. Three wins followed in the Falcons’ next four games, including victories at home against Leicester and Northampton Saints. Goode, the former England fly half, has steered his side around skilfully and kicked his goals.
“I’d been nervous starting again,” Goode said. “But it soon clicked into place. When we’d beaten Northampton and I got back into the changing room, I said two things to Dean. One, I didn’t sign up to play a full 80 minutes. Two, where’s the beer? Some of the lads said I should be having a protein shake, but Dean went to get some beer.”
There had been nerves, too, when Goode made his debut for Leicester, aged 18, against Richmond back in 1998. Richards was the coach then, too, Martin Johnson the captain. Goode came off the bench for the last five minutes, but it was the post-match festivities that left a stronger impression. “We were having a three-legged crawl around the ten bars at Welford Road and I was tied on to Martin Corry,” Goode said. “It was a pint and a shot in every bar and he bullied me all the way round.”
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The social side of the game, as you may have gathered, is important to Goode. “I’m not pushing alcohol on anyone,” he said. “It’s changed now, but that’s the environment I was brought up in. When we won an away match, Dean would get a load of beers on the bus, Johnno would stop off and pay for fish and chips for everyone. Those old-school values really stay with me.”
While the game and those who play it has altered immeasurably in the meantime, Goode, apart from a hair transplant and expanding waistline, has managed to stay the same. Even referees are drawn into the banter that Goode relishes, as the hugely popular YouTube video of his recent exchanges with Wayne Barnes demonstrates.
“I’ve always tried to play with a smile,” he said. “I’m huffing and puffing a bit more now, but I’m still trying to play with a smile on my face.”