It was a vintage, albeit comical, psychological play from Shaun Edwards.
Phil Vickery’s story left Tom Shanklin and Scott Quinnell in stitches(Image: Sky Sports )
Former England international Phil Vickery has revealed a new Shaun Edwards story that left two Wales legends in stitches.
Vickery appeared on the latest episode of The Overlap’s Stick To Rugby podcast with Scott Quinnell, Tom Shanklin, Lawrence Dallaglio and Katy Daley-McLean. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
Of course, Vickery played under Edwards for London Wasps while the northern Englishman was coach there with Warren Gatland. The World Cup winner was with hometown club Gloucester for nine years of his career before moving on, and he explained on Stick To Rugby that he had a trademark introduction to Edwards’ demeanour when he went to an analysis session with the squad.
“I remember walking into an analysis session at Wasps with Shaun Edwards, who is absolutely wired up the wrong way anyway, as we all know,” began Vickery. “I can’t remember who the game was against but Loll (Dallaglio) didn’t have his best game, which is unusual because he was fairly steady. And there was a lot of walking around at ruck time.
“Shaun says: ‘Surprise, surprise, Lawrence Dallaglio walking again’, everyone is in the room, all the academy guys (laughing). You can see him (Dallaglio) going redder and redder.
“The best bit of all was at the end of the session when it all finished everyone was coming out and Shaun is stood there with a little tin with some coins in it asking the boys for some money for Loll’s sponsored walk. You can see him absolutely firing up.”
Quinnell, Shanklin and Daly-McLean were cracking up as Dallaglio just sat and smiled, before he added: “It was me one week, the following week it was Matt Dawson. ‘Box kick, surprise f*****g surprise, box kick in the stands. Is your dad in the f*****g stands or what?'”
“He used to leave little notes on the board for players after games,” said Shanklin. “Like – ‘Work on your blitz defence’. And there would always be a funny note in there. Ian Evans, who probably wasn’t the most disciplined player, (his note said) – ‘f*****g discipline’. And that was it!
“Going on about him, that was the beauty, his simplicity,” remarked Vickery. “I remember arriving, he was a hero of mine, I used to go out watching rugby league and Wigan was my team and I just wanted to meet the guy. I remember walking up thinking: ‘Oh my God, he’s coming over’. He walked straight over to me, looks me straight in the eye and said: ‘Get you back to best in world’. Turned round and walked off!”
Quinnell added: “Shaun would pass me the ball (from a short distance) as fast as if he was passing at 30 yards, it hit my chest, bounced off. I said: ‘Shaun…’ He looked at me in the eye and went: ‘It’s my job to pass it, it’s your job to catch it.’ I thought – good argument, fair play!”
Edwards and Quinnell were team-mates together at Wigan back in the 1990s. Wales legend Quinnell made his code switch from union to league in 1994 and won a league championship and two caps for Wales before returning to union two seasons later.
If you would like to watch the full episode of Stick To Rugby, then click here.