Firsts & Lasts: Martin Corry
Former England captain Martin Corry recalls his first and last Test matches as skipper.
Martin Corry was a towering rugby presence on the pitch. At 6ft 5, and able to play lock, blindside or No 8, he made his England debut on tour against Argentina in 1997.
Having started his rugby in the minis at Tunbridge Wells RFC, he played for Tunbridge Wells Grammar School; Northumbria the first old-style poly to win the BUSA final at Twickenham, his first win on the hallowed turf; and represented England Schools, Students, U21s and England A, en-route to his first cap.
He was to play in 64 Tests and captain his nation in 17 of them, as well as representing the British & Irish Lions in 2001 and 2005, gaining seven caps. There was also the important part he played in England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup victorious campaign in Australia, ‘Cozza’ flying home to be with wife Tara at the birth of their first child, before playing in England's victory over Uruguay. He was later to play a pivotal role in England’s run to the World Cup final in October 07.
A total of 279 games for Leicester Tigers saw him captaining them from 2005 to 2009, winning the league six times and the European Cup twice.
He called time on his international career, aged 34, after turning down a place in Brian Ashton's 2008 Six Nations squad.
Ashton said at the time: "Martin has captained England on a number of occasions, often in difficult circumstances, and he has always led the side from the front in his own inimitable fashion."
That inimitable fashion was leading by example, passionate, unpretentious and most of all it was all about the team.
First: Italy at Twickenham | 12 March 2005 | England 39-7 Italy
"Jason Robinson had been injured in the previous game and I was just coming back from a dislocated elbow. I remember exactly where I was when Andy Robinson called me. I was about to be a wine waiter at a charity Ladies Night. That event filled me with dread and there was Andy on the phone saying would I like to captain England. It was an obvious yes but he said he’d give me 24 hours to think about it. I said I don’t need 24 hours but he insisted he’d ring the next day to confirm. So I wondered was he offering the captaincy or just seeing what I’d say if he asked?
“I told my wife Tara but nobody else because I wasn’t sure whether I was being made captain or not. And it was on to the dinner, where I hid as much as possible, some team mates loved that kind of attention, I hated it!
“I’m assuming he came back to me the next day because that’s the first time I captained England. Of course, everyone congratulates you but remember where we were at the time. We had just lost three games and it was horrific, hardly time to celebrate. It was all about thinking ‘Right, OK, what do we have to do to win the next two games and not have an abject failure?’
“Players’ confidence was massively fragile and it’s times like those when if you go a couple of points down you look at the eyes and see the fragility of the squad.
"This is your moment"
“There was only one moment when I thought ‘My God, I’m England captain!’ We were standing at the front of the Twickenham tunnel just before running out. Wig (Graham Rowntree) was standing behind me and he tapped me on the shoulder and said something like ‘This is your moment, enjoy it!’ He held back as I ran out and I felt a bit awkward on my own but then I saw my dad, who had come right down the stand to near the tunnel to get a picture. Seeing mum and dad and Tara there in the crowd and standing at the end of the line for the National Anthem was incredibly special.
“Then as soon as the anthems finished, it was just go out and play. Iain Balshaw had come back after a while and scored a try, Andy Goode made his debut, Cuets (Mark Cueto) got a hat- trick, he’s a great bloke to have in your team. It was a game in which Italy were poor so we were able to get into our stride, relax and play a bit of rugby.
“Everyone talks about winning being a habit and losing being a mentality and we needed to get into that habit. Coming off with the win there was no time to reflect, the next week we had Scotland and that was going to be a much bigger Test match.”
Last | Tonga at Parc des Princes | 28 September 2007 | England 36 - 20 Tonga
“Building up to that campaign Andy Robinson had gone and Brian Ashton took over, so it was new coach, new captain, which was fair enough. We had lost horribly to South Africa at Twickenham, playing the Springboks back to back, having lost at home to Argentina. South Africa’s coach Jake White was under pressure, Robbo was under pressure. It was a brutal time
“We’d identified that we were switching off ten minutes either side of half time and as captain and coach we’d called for 100% focus, make sure you control that 20 minute period, up the intensity. In the end it was about a couple of stupid mistakes gifting the opposition points. That’s when it’s really hard, when individual mistakes were costing us, and Andy carried the can. It was a really tough time to be England captain, a tough time to be an England supporter too; but if you’d told me in advance I’d still have bitten your hand off to be captain.
“Phil Vickery had been appointed after Robbo went and was the captain for the World Cup but he’d been suspended for two games, which was why I led the team. I’m glad it was my last in charge because otherwise it would have been the one when Andy got the sack.
Two Pool games to win
“There were two Pool games left, Samoa and Tonga, and the pressure was properly on us as losing would have meant England not qualifying from the Pool stages. Samoa was the big pressure game. We wanted to change the way we were playing, everything needed to change because we’d been poor against America and really poor against South Africa. Thankfully, with the Samoa game won, we knew we could do it, even when we went behind 10-3 early on.
“It was always going to be a physical game but we had the confidence and just needed to execute our game plan, hit the straps. We had confidence in the way we were playing, just had to stick to the task to come through it. Andy Farrell scored his first try for England and we were 19-10 up at half time and had really got into our game.
“My family were there, my parents never missed a game. Dad had played rugby, had a real passion for the game. He was the reason I didn’t give up when I was 16. Before a club game he always gave me £5 pocket money and told me to make sure I bought my opposite number and their captain a drink. That’s rugby values.
“Playing for England was a dream as a kid. You have that dream and when you start your senior rugby career it becomes a goal. It was all I ever wanted, a couple of times I was dropped when I thought I shouldn’t have been but it made me focus on being the best I could be. Being captain I never really thought ‘This is great!’ It was an honour but I saw it more as a responsibility to see England successful.
“The changing room can be a brutal place. Every decision you make as captain is massively scrutinised but it gives you resilience and that’s huge. You’re never coached on leadership or communication, you have to find your own way, figure it out. Ultimately, you’re captaining 14 friends and it’s what do you have to do to get the best out of them. That’s the most important part. I never thought ‘This is me, I’m the captain’. It was always ‘I’m the captain of this group of players, how can we best prepare to win?’
In challenging times you learn more
“The experience I had under so many coaches, with so many different players did affect who I am as a person, gave me an insight into myself. In the challenging times, I learned more about myself and others. It’s easy when you are winning but different when you are looking around and you’re 22-18 down. That’s when you discover the characters you are with, who you want fighting alongside you. There is such respect for them, they are people I might not see for a good couple of years who I hold in such high regard, who I will always go out of my way to catch up with."
