| By :
Jackie De Burca
Who is the rugby player who wears both the England and the London Wasps rugby kits; who has been described as an honest player with a nasty streak and is considered to be a throwback to the English old school of rugby props? The answer is Tim Payne (Timothy Adam North Payne), born in Swindon, 29th April 1979. London Wasps prop, Tim Payne turned 32 on 29th April 2011; 10 days after an incident with team mate Andy Powell, in a London pub, which may have meant that Payne or Powell would not be seen sporting the Wasps rugby kits for a while. Both were suspended pending an internal investigation. Payne was the first to be cleared to play after it was established that he was trying to play the part of peacemaker. Once it was discovered that it was Powell who managed to get himself into trouble, which included being struck by a bar stool, after as the Welshman said a "bit of banter." Peacemaker Payne has enjoyed a good degree of success in his rugby career emerging in the Royal Bank of Scotland's Six Nations as the top choice for the No. 1 rugby shirt for England. However although Tim Payne had been capped 22 times for England, he did not feature in the 2011 Six Nations Tournament. Before 2003 he played for a variety of clubs without making his mark, but once introduced to Wasps that year, he improved immediately. Making his debut against Leeds, Payne did very well under the coaching regime of Warren Gatland and forward coach Craig Dowd, materialising into a robust, aggressive prop forward. The following two years saw him featuring in the Wasps winning Premiership teams, topped by a 2004 winner's medal in the Heineken Cup. Shortly afterwards, he played his first match for England in 2004 against Australia, in the 51-15 loss. He did not feature again on the England team until the summer of 2006. In the season of 2006-7, Tim Payne marked up twenty six appearances for Wasps and was selected for the 6 Nations England tour of 2007. He started in the last 2 matches of the Six Nations Tournament against France and Wales. But Payne's season was disrupted by a knee ligament injury in the Heineken Cup quarter final against Leinster, which meant that the rugby prop needed to have reconstructive surgery. He made a quicker recuperation than expected, and was back playing 2 months earlier than expected. However the injury had already ruled him out of the English Rugby World Cup Squad. In 2008 Payne started England's win over Italy having replaced an injured Andrew Sheridan. He has played for England in the 2007, 2008 and 2010 Six Nations Tournaments, and was called into the 2009 British and Irish Lions Tour. 2010 saw him play seven matches in the England rugby kit. Phil Keith-Roach, one of the most respected analysts of props in England and former England scrum coach, said of Tim Payne: "Tim's a very tough man, durable, competitive, confident with the ball." Looking forward to seeing more of Tim sporting the English and Wasps rugby kit in coming months and years hopefully!
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.articlesbacklink.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
