{"id":49831,"date":"2025-04-25T16:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T16:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/49831\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T16:36:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T16:36:16","slug":"how-england-prop-turned-farmer-swapped-scrum-time-for-screen-time-planet-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/49831\/","title":{"rendered":"How England prop turned farmer swapped scrum time for screen time : Planet Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby\u2019s answer to Jeremy Clarkson has always pushed for a living. First in the scrum, now to champion British farming as an unexpected star of social media.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By his own admission Julian White pushed his luck, at times, too. \u201cA red card here, a red card there,\u201d he recalls, dryly. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be able to play now. With all those cameras I\u2019d probably last five minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

White was a British and Irish Lion who won a World Cup and 51 caps with England<\/a>. His rugby CV includes a Grand Slam, a Six Nations title, two Premierships and a European Cup final.<\/p>\n

Instagram fame<\/p>\n

Yet on Instagram this week the man who famously floored England strongman Andrew Sheridan in a club game with a single punch, was celebrating the blossom on his apple tree and an app which identifies birdsong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow,\u201d he said, breaking off suddenly from marvelling at it correctly naming a chiffchaff. \u201cYou get to a certain age and it just drops off a cliff. Your dullness.\u201d<\/p>\n

White, a team-mate of Ben Youngs for five years at the start of the Leicester<\/a> career of England\u2019s most-capped player, is now 51.<\/p>\n

It has been 13 years since one of rugby\u2019s most destructive tighthead props left the stage, bowing out as an unused replacement in Tigers\u2019 Anglo-Welsh Cup final win over Northampton.<\/p>\n

Back then he was known for his hardness on the pitch and for being somewhat shy off it. A reluctant interviewee, it would be fair to say.<\/p>\n

You would not know it from his entertaining @whitey.southdevons offerings on Instagram, which he posts in an effort to increase public awareness of farming life.<\/p>\n

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At 3.30 this morning, for example, he was on the move at Crabtree Farm, the 140-acre plot where he owns 90 cows and almost 700 sheep, as one of his heifers was giving birth.<\/p>\n

Within hours there he was, replete in trademark beanie, introducing Fidget and her calf to his fast-growing online audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeremy Clarkson has brought farming to the masses, his show is very watchable, whether or not you\u2019re a farmer,\u201d says White. \u201cHe captures the essence of farming, makes it interesting, and brings awareness to farming to the wider public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a great thing, fantastic, because farmers, generally speaking, I don\u2019t think are very good at telling a story to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all very passionate and all very busy, but you\u2019re producing a product. If you don\u2019t share it with people how do you expect them to buy into it and Buy British.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired by Clarkson, who in 2008 bought a 1,000-acre property in the Cotswolds which became the setting for four seasons of Clarkson\u2019s Farm on Amazon Prime, White has chosen to lift the lid on what he does.<\/p>\n

Not only him but Tom Youngs, brother of Ben and another former Leicester, England and Lions front-rower \u2013 spreading the gospel online as he tends to the land on his 1,900-acre Sankence Farm in Norfolk.<\/p>\n

\u201cTom\u2019s farm is predominantly arable, mine purely livestock, so although we\u2019re both farmers we\u2019re telling completely different stories,\u201d he points out. \u201cI feel it\u2019s important we continue to do so. You\u2019ve got to be outgoing to be of interest to anyone at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a player White was highly self-critical. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in that environment you\u2019re under pressure the whole time,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d sit in bed after a game, always critical of myself, always wanting to play better.\u201d<\/p>\n

He gets frustrated at times now, too, by the obstacles he finds himself up against.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are living in a little tiny country with 60 or 70 million people that need to eat three times a day,\u201d says the Devonian, who is self-taught and built everything from scratch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor farmers it should be fairly straightforward. We produce quality food for everyone, look after the environment and make an honest living. But it\u2019s not that straightforward.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll that drive I had for rugby I\u2019m now directing at farming. I love what I do. I\u2019m passionate and I\u2019m focused. Yet farming has caused me more stress than rugby ever did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lambing season is coming to an end as the rugby season builds to a climax. White loves to watch his son play at Market Harborough, and last autumn he joined England\u2019s class of 2003 at Twickenham to salute fans and lift the Webb Ellis Cup once more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get a lot of comments like, \u2018You played rugby in a certain style\u2019. Not sure what they mean by that!\u201d he adds. \u201cIn truth I look back and can\u2019t remember too many of the games. That\u2019s life. Your mind gets full of other things.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll through life I\u2019ve had to have a goal, something to aim towards. I would have found things hard had I not had farming, which has taken me out of my comfort zone and enabled me to look forward and keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is one of the lucky ones. Many players struggle to adjust to life beyond a professional career. In the most extreme instances lives have been taken. Many others suffer with a range of mental health issues.<\/p>\n

White had the benefit of foresight. He saw the end coming and, knowing his own mind, realised he needed to put something in place to occupy the rest of his working life.<\/p>\n

Big call<\/p>\n

The way he did it, withdrawing from England\u2019s 2007 World Cup squad [which would reach the final in France] to rent a farm and sow the seed for his next career, raised more than the odd eyebrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty big call back then to suddenly pull out literally just before the tournament, but my mind is not always rational,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t look back with regrets. Go to the World Cup or rent a farm? No brainer, right? Why would you even consider the latter? My wife Sara thought I was absolutely bonkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember her saying, \u2018Stop being a diva, you will look back and regret it. You\u2019ll never get this opportunity again. For god\u2019s sake, what are you thinking?!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my defence I was 34 and Tigers were saying if you go away we might not give you a contract. There was a bit of pressure. They certainly didn\u2019t say, \u2018Go, you\u2019ve got our blessing\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I\u2019ve done a few things like that with my career. I\u2019m a bit of a random character. What can I say.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: England bolter attracting Steve Borthwick interest ahead of summer tour after \u2018rapid development\u2019<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rugby\u2019s answer to Jeremy Clarkson has always pushed for a living. First in the scrum, now to champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,225,522,20795,12,6875,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-49831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-international","13":"tag-leicester-tigers","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-premiership","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114399581528930146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}