England legend Peter Winterbottom on his debut being overshadowed by a streaker, losing a Rugby World Cup final, touring apartheid South Africa… and his charity work for the Doddie Weir foundation

The date was January 2, 1982, the referee blew for half-time, 14 – sweaty and bruised rugby union players sat on the freezing-cold, muddy Twickenham pitch, discussing their tight affair with Australia and what pub they were going to later.  

The 15th player Peter Winterbottom, making his debut, followed quietly.  

He had been told by his mentor, former onside flanker Tony Neary, to concentrate and keep his head down otherwise his debut would go by in a blur. 

But what Peter, Tony or 60,000 rugby union fans couldn’t predict was a famous streaking event that stole the limelight. 

‘There was a guy in a gorilla suit who ran on at the north end of the ground,’ Peter said – a smile wrapping around his face as memories of his special day flood back to him. 

‘The crowd started shouting and I looked at the north, I thought they were shouting for that. 

‘That would have been a spectacular thing alone, the gorilla suit but nobody cared, as at the south end behind me, there was Erika Roe and her friend who wasn’t quite as well-endowed as her, so nobody remembers her name.  

‘I never even noticed her, so it didn’t really affect my concentration in my debut, like it did the other guys.’  

Despite the Erika Roe incident, Winterbottom’s debut was the culmination of years of hard work, dedication and sacrifices to pursue his lifelong dream of playing rugby union for England. 

‘To get my first cap, I was thrilled. 

‘People say what is the highlight of your career and I think in many respects it must be my debut. Whatever happens after that, nobody can take it away from you. 

‘Playing with people I had been watching on TV for years and suddenly I got the chance to play with them which was special to me.’ 

Winterbottom, nicknamed ‘Strawman’ because of his thatch of blonde hair, grew up in the small town of Otley, West Yorkshire and was born into an agricultural family. 

He would work occasionally on his uncle’s farm, where he built up his strength and resilience from an early age, two factors of his career he would be widely known for. 

But it was always going to be rugby union for Peter, a sport that his dad introduced to him, and he never looked back. 

‘Rugby was always part of my family. My dad played to a certain level, and he was the initial influence. 

‘He was the chairman of Headingley Rugby Club, which has now become Leeds Rugby Club and my mum used to do the teas, so it was very much a family affair. 

‘From a young age I was dragged down to the club (Headingley) to be the ball boy.’ 

Peter’s eyes grew wide, and a smile appeared on his face as he said: ‘I used to after the game play with my mates in the lights of the clubhouse, I had some of the best times of my childhood there – so I suppose that’s where my enthusiasm for the game came about.’ 

The late 1960s was a difficult time for junior rugby, with no clubs offering junior sections like we see today.  

There were no opportunities for kids to come down and try the game and be rewarded with a burger cooked on a 13-year-old BBQ while their parents settled in at the bar. 

Winterbottom knew he had to be patient, and pounce when he got the chance: ‘There was no junior rugby back in my day, unless you went to a prep school. 

‘I went to boarding school when I was 11 so that’s where I first started competing properly.  

‘I made my way up in the age groups, played for Lancashire Under 16’s but didn’t make it any further. But in my final year I got back into the Lancashire U19s and I got through to the final England trial but didn’t make it. 

‘Not making it spurred me on really’. 

Following the failure at Burton Rugby Club, a difficult and career-defining decision had to be made. 

Having had experience on his uncle’s farm, he had to work for a year in order to secure his place at agricultural college, a place where he would refine his skills to become a farmer.  

A life of hard work, labour and early mornings which would make us common folk wince for even considering. 

But a shining glimmer of hope in the form of a phone call changed his life forever.  

‘The England Colts, who were for people in full-time work called up to set up a trial and I managed to get in. 

‘At 21, I had a very good season with Yorkshire, so they selected me for one England B game against France, before I got the call for my debut against Australia at Twickenham.’  

Two years later, Winterbottom had settled into the squad nicely, his fierce nature and harsh tackles enamoured him to the crowds. 

Particularly after putting in highly-regarded performances in the British and Irish Lions tour in 1983, his first.  

In 1984 the England team made their way to South Africa, in a very controversial tour due to the apartheid going on at the time.  

England’s decision to take part drew massive public criticism and was the subject of covert political pressure. 

‘Most of the world sport had a ban there due to apartheid, we were effectively the last sports tour to go there. 

‘It was a funny old place, I never felt that me being there and playing rugby, I wasn’t going to change it, so I just enjoyed it and got on with it. 

‘A white guy playing rugby, it was relatively safe, and the South Africans were alright and because they had had the apartheid for so long, they were very stuck in their ways. 

‘But the English-speaking liberals knew things had to change, it was just a case of when.’ 

The South Africa tour also brought on Winterbottom’s first hurdle in his international career.  

A setback that he hadn’t seen before, and one that could have put his international career in jeopardy.  

‘I stayed on after the tour and we played in Durban. I played constantly during the summer, and I got this back problem and that put me out from when I got back in September until the end of the season really, I didn’t play any Six Nations games. 

Despite the injury, Winterbottom laughed at the idea of retirement: ‘It was never that serious, a pelvic injury that needed to get back into shape. 

‘I knew it needed to take time to settle and It didn’t bother me not playing in that season, I had three seasons of international rugby beforehand and I was relatively established.’ 

The 1991 Rugby World Cup final loss to Australia was certainly the most challenging time in his illustrious England career.  

England has reached the final by playing a forward-dominated game, but they decided to change tactics to unsettle the Australians.  

Winterbottom’s wide smile turned into a blank look of defeat as he recalled the match which they lost 12-6 at Twickenham. 

’We were the better side and had scoring opportunities that we didn’t take and from an ensuing line-out. They won the game, which was frustrating because we were so close. We played so well and to come up short was quite hard to take. 

‘We were all involved in the tactic-making really, we felt that we weren’t going to beat the Australian forwards because we played them earlier in the summer and got beaten 40-15. We thought we were going to beat them playing our game, we didn’t so we decided to open things up a little bit and looking back maybe we opened it up too much. 

‘There were big characters completely distraught. It was very hard, particularly on home soil and as we had done so badly at the World Cup in 1987 (lost in the quarter-finals). 

‘It was massively disappointing, I remember that night there was dinner up in London at the Hilton, we just went to the pub instead, you just didn’t want to be socialising at that time.’ 

Since hanging up the boots, Winterbottom has spent his time giving back to the game he loves.  

As many ex-professionals do in all sports, they return to the grassroots format, to provide wisdom and their knowledge of the game. 

This was no different for the ‘Strawman’, who tucked away his laptop and chose to get back involved in the sport he cherishes. 

‘I ended up coaching at Esher Rugby for four years, but then stopped in 2004 when my daughter was born and I knew I couldn’t manage working in the city, coaching rugby and bringing my daughter up. 

‘Esher got relegated in 2019 from Division One and John Inverdale phoned up and said would you like to be involved in the coaching.  

‘They signed Chris Wilkins to be head coach, and they said would you like to help him, and I said why don’t I be Director of Rugby.  

‘I knew I’d work with Wilko so that’s what we did, we’ve then changed things here and got promoted back to Division One in 2021 but had a disaster in 2022 and were relegated again.’ 

In all sports teams, grassroots or professional, culture is important otherwise a team can fail and people lose interest. 

Winterbottom noted: ‘Setting the culture is one of the biggest jobs I’ve got. If you haven’t got a good culture, you’re going nowhere, people have got to enjoy it, they have to want to come down. 

‘You must keep encouraging players, it’s very easy to be critical, we want to play good and entertaining rugby and you must balance that with individual pressures from work and relationships.’ 

Rugby has a funny way of bringing people together, you protect the men you go to battle with, a bond that breaks the boundaries of the game. 

This is no different for Winterbottom, who is a member of the Doddie Weir foundation.  

Weir made 61 appearances for the Scotland national team and represented the British and Irish Lions.  

Weir tragically passed away in 2022 following a five-year-battle with motor neurone disease (MND). 

A terrible uncommon disease that effects the cells that control skeletal muscle activity such as walking and breathing.  

Winterbottom, a former team-mate of Weir, announced a very special fundraiser in his honour.  

A smile grew on his face as he explained: ‘I’ve been running a few charity cycling events over the past few years anyway. 

‘What would be an ultimate challenge is to cycle from San Francisco to New York. Three-thousand-and 200-miles next May and June. Mike Teague is one of the guys who I played with is doing it with me and several others want to get involved. 

‘It will be an incredible adventure and it’s something that I think if we don’t do it now, we never will because we are not getting any younger and it’s all for raising money for his foundation.’ 

Website Link: www.myname5doddie.co.uk  

By Alex Worth

Follow @AlexWorth17