Plane ride following Sale statement 35-14 win over Clermont Auvergne Last Saturday in the Champions Cup looked to be a whirlwind one.
Two fans accompanying the team on a charter flight had to be taken on board, and the club's sponsor lost his passport, requiring a 45-minute scramble through the airport. When the plane touched down at 11pm, the group of players headed straight to the Manchester mixer to continue the celebrations. Leading the attack was scrum-half Raffie Quirke, fresh from his best individual performance for some time and determined to savor the moment after a difficult few years.
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“It was a good night, let’s put it that way,” Quirke says with a smile. “When I was younger, I thought, 'Don't ever drink and go straight to training the next day so you can focus on the next task. As I got older, I realized that you remember the wins, but what you really remember is the whole experience of going out afterwards. Just chatting about the game over a couple of beers and saying, 'How cool was that?' you just get a few more truths out of people. I think that way the memory lasts longer.”
Quirk shows how fickle sports can be and how capricious confidence as a commodity can be. Rewinding back four years, Quirke made his debut as a substitute against Australia after a productive year with Sale becoming England's youngest midfielder since Nick Duncombe in 2002. The following week, Quirke came off the bench again to score a sensational winning try in England's 27-26 win over world champions South Africa. “It was crazy,” Quirk said. “It was the best feeling I've ever had on a rugby field. I remember seeing Siya Kolisi at the scrum and thinking, 'What am I doing here?'
Quirke came off the bench to score the winner for England against South Africa in the 2022 Autumn Nations Series – Getty Images/David Rogers
This turned out to be his last test game. At the start of 2022, Quirke suffered a hamstring injury which kept him out of the game for six months. A single failure became a series of failures. Next came a broken jaw, a broken wrist, a torn foot ligament, all usually designed to cause maximum discomfort. In professional sports, the wheel always keeps turning, and Quirke quickly fell to the ground. England Number 9 in the pecking order, at club level he often found himself second to Gus Warr.
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Each time he returned, his confidence took longer to return and the look of that carefree kid running under the posts against the Springboks became a little more distant. Indeed, when you type Quirke's name into Google, one of the first responses is: “What happened to Raffy Quirke?” as if he were a forgotten one-hit wonder of the 1990s.
“When you first step on stage you think, I can’t have a bad performance,” Quirke said. “Everything is going as well as Henry Pollock is doing right now. When you're doing so well, you're so naive. You accept everything that comes your way. Then you have a few injuries that knock your confidence. Then you have to come back from injury and not only feel confident in your body, but feel confident in your head. When you spend a lot of time with injuries, people forget about you. Sometimes it's nice to have a good game and remind people what you can do.”
Those reminders, against Clermont and away at Bristol Bears last season, demonstrate why Quirke was once seen as the heir apparent to Ben Youngs, combining lightning-fast bursts with a delivery speed matched only by Alex Mitchell. That is why the 24-year-old footballer was included in the England national team's training camp this fall.
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The scrum-half has been included in England's training camp this autumn – Getty Images/David Rogers
“We've been waiting for this,” said Alex Sanderson, Sale's director of rugby. “He was almost there, injured, almost there, injured and then lost a little bit of form. He needs support and that's up to me and the coaching staff. We all expected him to be England's next number nine four years ago. Has he got it too soon? Too soon? You don't know and you can't change it, but ever since he came back [from England] he's like, “Stand by me, I'm going to prove you wrong, why should you have started with me earlier.”
Although he did not play in any Tests, just taking part in training in England seemed to have lit a fire under Quirke. Taking note of the example of midfielder George Ford, who was overlooked by Steve Borthwick until the final game of this year's Six Nations, Quirke began training the team. “Steve mentioned George's attitude early in camp and that's what I tried to emulate,” Quirke said. “I trained under the name Cam Roygard. [the New Zealand scrum-half] and being a Fijian scrum-half, I had more rights to offload as I was under 23, which I really enjoyed. Of course, I was annoyed that I was not participating in the games, but it gave me a huge boost of motivation. “Just warming up at Twickenham and watching the game with the traveling reserves, thinking, ‘I wish I could be on that pitch right now’ because I haven’t been there for so long.”
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The England coaching staff noted that Quirke had to play part of the game against Clermont on the wing. Borthwick has previously hinted at emulating the Springboks by using the 7-1 bench and Quirke has shown he can fill that Grant Williams role. “I don't really mind playing there – you kind of have a license to go and get the ball,” Quirke said. “Nobody expects much from you, but I made one decent run. I looked like we were going for a shot, but when my head isn't in the ruck you can see there's space in front of me and a couple of lazy forwards. I should have made the chip.”
Saturday should also be an exciting spectacle, with Quirke likely to go head-to-head with Mitchell when Sale visits Franklin Gardens in Northampton. It comes at a critical moment not only for Sale, who is looking to close the gap on the top six, but also for Quirke, who is in contract negotiations with Newcastle Red Bulls sniffing around a player who is finally enjoying himself again.
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“Alex is obviously an incredible player and it was great getting to know him in the fall,” Quirke said. “It won't be easy to negate his threat. I always like to fight top nines, it shows where you are. After that fall camp I feel in good shape. I have confidence in my body now, which gives my head a little peace so I can be confident in my skills.”
