James Horwill Calls In From The UK!

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be able to catch up with the one and only James Horwill, who made some time to call in via Zoom!

James Horwill is a name that's pretty much synonymous with Queensland rugby. He came on board in 2006 and helped lead the team to it's first Super Rugby championship in 2011. He played with the team for ten seasons, making 116 appearances! I made sure I asked him all about 2011 and what he thinks makes a championship team.

He was also a great Wallaby, making 62 appearances (many as captain) before he made his way to England to play for the club Harlequins. He officially retired last year, which was a big deal! (Fourteen years of professional rugby is long time.) He is still living there with his wife and daughter. I wasn't keen to talk about the virus situation too much! But was keen to find out how he's doing at the moment, before we began reminiscing... 

Hey James, thanks for taking time to chat!

Kind of a cheesy photo... but good fun

Pleasure. Thanks for having me! Nice to see a bit of Queensland in your backyard, from here in the UK. Nice to speak to you over the internet, which we’re getting used to these days.

How are things in England at the moment? What’s the situation with the lockdown?

Things are ok. As you said, we’re in lockdown at the moment still. We get some more information about that on Sunday evening. We’re allowed to go out, to exercise, go for a walk, or go to the shops, but that’s about it.

I’ve got my wife and my young daughter here, we’re ok, we’re sort of shacked up at home and get to enjoy spending a bit of time together. Obviously the virus has hit the UK and Europe quite hard, so it’s probably for the best that we stay away and do our best to minimise the impact of it.

How have you been coping since the lockdown, with no rugby to watch?

Yeah, it’s been a little bit weird. There’s been no sport, which is strange. Most social media channels of all teams have been putting a few vintage games and it’s nice to reminisce about that occasionally and look back at games you watched when you were growing up and also games you were involved in at the beginning of your career, it seems a long time ago now… so in that aspect, it’s quite nice to rejig the memory a little bit. Hopefully though, it looks like you guys might get a little bit of live rugby, sooner than we are, so it’ll be good to watch a little bit of that when that comes on.

Would that make you consider coming out of retirement?

Haha I don’t think so. I think my professional playing days are over now - I’m quite happily retired. I enjoyed what I did, but it’s like they say, when you know, you know. I’ve enjoyed my time in retirement so far.

What have you been up to since you hung up your boots?

When I retired last year, I started studying at the university of Cambridge, I’m doing an MBA here, I’ve been doing that since September. I’m also doing some work for my families business which is automotive accessories manufacturer, so I do a bit of work for them over here in the UK. Our head office is based in Brisbane, but we have a European office that’s been based here for a while. So I do a bit of work for them. I played for the university game against Oxford in December last year, so I strapped my boots back on for that, we had a win, which was at Twickenham. So with university and work, I’ve been keeping myself as busy as possible.

I’m a Reds fan so I’d like to start with going right back to 2011!

Sounds good.

Would you like to talk us through that season, from your perspective?

Yeah, sure! It was a great season, one of the most memorable, if not the most memorable season of my career, at any level. It starts probably with the devastating flood earlier that year, when a lot of people lost their homes, Suncorp Stadium was under water, so I think that was a galvanising factor for the Queensland public. We wanted to make sure that when we played, we gave people that had been through some hard times something to cheer about and put a smile on their face, by the way we played rugby. That was something that was evident throughout the year.

It’s a tough way to start, but a lot of things went well for us that year, after that. We were quite fortunate with injuries, there were some big games and it was a season where the team was able to adapt to the way we wanted to play and the way the opposition played. As momentum built, I think the belief built within us and as we got closer and closer to the end, there was a feeling inside that we were going to win this and we just had to make sure we kept playing. Obviously, the final game at Suncorp was one of the highlights of my career, the fact that we got to do it at home, at Suncorp, which 6-7 months earlier had been underwater due to the floods, it was a nice place to finish and wrap it all up. It was an amazing year and something that will stick very fondly in my memory.

It’s crazy to think we’re 10 years on from that. Next year’s the 10 year anniversary and we’re already in discussions to get the boys back together and get to Queensland at some point for a bit of a reunion.

James with the 2011 Super Rugby trophy

When did you think you’d have a shot at winning the championship?

Um - it’s a weird one… I think every season you go into you thought you could win it. That’s the mindset and that’s why you want to go into it. Obviously, Ewen came into it and changed some things up in 2010 and we fell just short of the finals that year and probably rightly so, I don’t think we were consistent enough to make the finals. But I think that was a good thing for us, it gave us more hunger, fire and desire to get through the next year. You probably don’t think specifically until right at the end, as you’re going through the season that you can win it, but I think in Super Rugby, it’s such a tough comp and it’s so quick and intense, that you can’t drop any games. It’s important that play you play at the same level week in and week out.

Based on that experience, what are the important ingredients of a championship rugby team?

That’s a good question. I think the team aspect is the most important thing. It’s important that you have a group of guys that are buying into a common goal and understand that everything they do is for that purpose. Allowing individuals to be themselves and express themselves, with buy in to that common goal. We certainly had an element of that, in that 2011 side. And you’ve got to enjoy it! Winning was obviously great, some of the best rugby memories from that season are from on the field and off. That certainly plays into performing well on the pitch - just that camaraderie and buying in and doing things for each other.

There’s not a lot of difference between the top teams around the world, they’re all great teams, it’s the small one-percenters that make the difference. So I think that camaraderie and the team unity is a big part of it.

Have you followed the Reds much since travelling to England?

Yes I have. Super Rugby is quite available on TV over here, it’s on Sky and so forth. So I would get up and watch at maybe 8, 9 or 10 o’clock if I didn’t have training or anything on, but I would always keep an eye on how the games would go. The teams changed a little bit since I was there, there’s not too many guys still at the Reds that I played with in my final few years, but it’s been great to watch. There are a lot of young guys coming through, which is exciting and hopefully they can stay together and can form the “back-bone” of the team moving forward. They’re doing some good things and I think they’re going to get rewarded whenever the Wallabies are picked. The biggest thing is trying to maintain those guys altogether and keep them in a group for a period of time so hopefully they can do something special.

James and the Wallabies won the Tri-Nations, home
at Suncorp stadium in 2011

What was the highlight of your time playing with the Wallabies?

Um, I think you always remember your first cap, that was a special moment. I was lucky to play amongst some great
sides, getting asked to captain the side for a period of time was a highlight, winning the Tri-Nations for the first time captaining, at Suncorp stadium, that was a great experience. There were some great games along the way there, some games in South Africa that we won, beating the All Black in Brisbane and in Sydney, that sort of stuff sticks with you for a long time.

It’s hard to put [into words]… I was very lucky to play for as long as I did for the Wallabies, again, the experience that you have off the field and touring and travelling the world is always a great experience and something that you certainly don’t take for granted.

Thanks James for your time! Really appreciate the chat!

Pleasure Tom! Happy to chat any time. It’s great to see you supporting the Reds - I follow with interest as you do, we’re both fans now so we get to sit on the other side now and watch and enjoy what the boys are doing. Hopefully we’ll see a bit of live rugby on the TV soon.

I hope so too!

A special thanks to Ann-Maree from Vintage Reds for helping us get in touch. She also helped me get connected with the great Andrew Slack, who I interviewed for last weeks blog.)