https://www.wasps.co.uk/news/wasps-always-alex-king/Wasps AlwaysMore than just a legend, Alex was an all-time Wasps great. He joined the club in 1996 and spent eleven years as first choice fly-half, during which time we won ten trophies. He made over 250 appearances and scored nearly 1500 points, before bowing out with victory in the 2007 Heineken Cup Final.
After a season as a Clermont-Auvergne player, he joined their coaching staff and helped them win the French championship in 2009/10. He moved to Northampton ahead of the 2013/14 season, which ended with them winning the Premiership. After three seasons with the Saints, he returned to France as Montpellier's backs coach. During his three years there, they finished top of the Top 14 in 2017/18, but lost the final. He was the Wales backs coach in the 2017 Six Nations and has just been named as Gloucester's new attack coach.
FIRST GAME - LOFTUS ROAD - 8/9/96
It was a great occasion. It was my first game for the club, there was a big crowd and we were up against Saracens, who’d spent a lot of money on some of the biggest names in world rugby. Francois Pienaar and Philippe Sella were in their side, and my opposite number was one of the greatest fly-halves the game has ever seen, Michael Lynagh.
I know I was involved in the moment when he got injured and had to go off. I think it might have been a double tackle, and Lawrence was definitely involved. I’ll probably have to watch the recording again.
We played some great rugby and had a really good win, but Michael got his own back the following season, when he completely dominated the cup final.
TOULOUSE - HEINEKEN CUP POOL GAME, 26/10/96, LOFTUS ROAD
We’d been badly beaten by Munster the week before. I didn’t play in that game, but I can remember the atmosphere during the week. Toulouse were the reigning champions, but we played them off the park. I can remember Nick Greenstock getting a couple of great tries. I think Paul Sampson and Shane Roiser also scored. We played some amazing rugby that day. Even though we were already out of Europe, it gave us enormous confidence and really put us on the European map.
LEAGUE TITLE - 1996/97
It was my first season, and I’d heard all the stories about winning the league in 1990. This was the first fully professional season, and the team really came together. The club had been through two or three years when quite a few players had left. Lawrence took over the captaincy, so we had a young English international as captain and young, ambitious players. Nigel Melville really got us to the maximum of our ability.
I remember winning the title up at Northampton, on the penultimate weekend. I didn’t play the full 80 minutes, because Matt Dawson kneed me in the back, and I had to leave the field, squealing like a pig. But I managed to get up into the stand to collect the trophy and I shall always remember the photo of me and Lawrence, holding it up.
Then we went back to Sudbury. I used to love Sudbury. It summed up the way Wasps were. Hard-working, rough and ready - the heart of the club. We went into the old bar there and celebrated long into the night. There was also a party at Twickenham, a few days later. I remember spending the whole evening with Rob Henderson, which probably wasn’t the best thing to do!
1999 CUP FINAL v NEWCASTLE
Josh almost always played well for Wasps, but I think he really showed his class in that game in particular. That was the year when we arrived in taxis. If you do that, you simply have to win, and we put in a great team performance. I think it laid the foundations for the next few years.
I didn’t score many tries, so I always enjoyed it, when I did get over. To score in a cup final was even better. Lots of people will confirm that I was cuddling a TV until late that night, when it was replaying the game in the Sports Cafe. It was a good try. It opened up, and I think I had the fullback to beat. I kicked over the top, chip-and-chase, and I beat Gary Armstrong in a foot race, which surprised even me. I almost dislocated my shoulder in scoring, when Paul Sampson jumped on top of me.
2002/03 PPCC AND PREMIERSHIP
Nigel had done an amazing job for us, but I think Gatland just brought a new level of professionalism and fitness to the team. He brought (fitness coach) Craig White into the club and I think we went undefeated for the last seven games of 01/02. That really set the platform for 02/03.
We’d signed Craig Dowd, from New Zealand, and Rob Howley, from Wales, but we had a lot of ambitious English players, like Shawsie and Worzel. We had the foundations for a really good team, and we went on to enjoy great success under Warren, then Geech. We had three DORs in my eleven years with Wasps and the team really developed.
I know Warren thinks we would probably have won the Heineken Cup that year, had we been in it. It’s hard to say, because the teams you’re playing in the Challenge Cup aren’t quite of the same standard, but there were some stand-out games, like going to Paris and beating Stade Français, in the second leg of the quarter-finals. Fraser (Waters) had a great game that night, as he usually did for Wasps.
Although we finished well behind Gloucester in the league, we produced probably our best performance of the whole year against them, in the final, at Twickenham. It was a blistering hot day and I think we were lucky that we’d had the game against Bath, the previous week, which was also in the heat. It’s gone into Wasps folklore that we trained with bin-liners under our shirts to recreate what it was going to be like in such high temperatures. It all worked out on the day, for two weekends running. It was a fantastic performance against Gloucester..
Winning a couple of trophies that year really set the stage for the following season. We were determined to go one better and win the Heineken Cup.
2003/04 HEINEKEN CUP AND PREMIERSHIP DOUBLE
The final pool game, in Perpignan, was amazing. There were at least a dozen citings against Perpignan players, and there was a very hostile crowd. It was a really sensational performance to go out and beat a French team, which had everything to play for. We were booed, as we went on to the field, and applauded as we left, so I think we really earned some respect that day.
We had a convincing win in the quarter-final, against Gloucester, to set up a semi-final against Munster, at Lansdowne Road. It was a truly epic game. European semi-finals are special occasions, but they don’t come much more special than playing an Irish team in Dublin, in front of a sea of red shirts.
Trevor Leota had an absolutely immense game - in the tight and in the loose, and he scored the winning try, in the corner. It was just a magical day and an amazing game. The lead changed hands several times and we were down by ten points, with about ten, fifteen minutes to go, but we found a way to win. Tom Voyce also had a great game and Paul Volley was immense, but it was a team performance from fifteen players who were willing to sacrifice anything.
The final was an absolutely brilliant game. Toulouse played some of the best rugby I’ve ever been involved with. They were offloading in situations where you would never have thought it was possible. There were times in the first half when we were chasing shadows. If their finishing had been better, they’d have probably been out of sight. But we just stuck in there, and a good home crowd at Twickenham probably got us through.
I’m just thankful that Rob chased his own kick down the touchline in the 79th minute, to win us the game. We were heading for extra time and my legs were like jelly. It would have been a real test for us, if it had gone to extra time. Thankfully, we just managed to hang on and register a famous win.
Poitrenaud went on to win another couple of Heineken Cups with Toulouse, and he was a great servant of the club. I’m just thankful that, for those few seconds, he wasn’t quite at the races.
Somehow, we managed to beat Bath in the Premiership final, six days later. That was the day Trevor was really struggling in the lineout and somebody in the backline asked me which move we’d be doing off our lineout and I just said that we needed to form our blitz defence, because it was certain that we were going to lose possession. I can’t remember whether it was Fraser or Stuart Abbott. Those two never stopped talking, which was probably one of their strengths.
We simply had to win that game, because losing would have been a bad way to end the season. Winning the double was a very special thing, which very few sides have done. Anybody that does has special players, a special team and special coaches.
2007 HEINEKEN CUP
I’d been in discussions with Geech about whether I’d stay for another year, but I realised the game against Leicester was probably going to be my last major final. Heineken Cup finals are rare things, and to play in my second one was incredible.
I didn’t play for six weeks before the final. I was injured in the quarter-final against Leinster, when Eoin Reddan played brilliantly. We beat Northampton in the semi-final and had a trial match the week before the final - Probables against Possibles. The Possibles won, but we only played for about 40 minutes. Tim Payne had been injured, a week or two earlier, and Tom French stepped up and played really well in the final, which was his first team debut.
For me, it was just a case of getting on to the pitch. Thankfully, all the physios and medics did everything they could, and they managed to get me out there. I lasted the eighty minutes, probably on pure adrenalin, and to beat Leicester was immense.
It was an amazing day and an amazing way to end my Wasps career. I really wanted to savour it. We were in the England dressing room and there's a picture somewhere, of me with my 50th Heineken match cap on, with the trophy, in those famous Twickenham baths. I remember we then had a great night in the Crown, in St Margaret’s.
It was probably the best possible way to bow out.
Topic: A great feature on Alex King - Wasps Official (Read 798 times)
Always a Wasp