At 25, England rugby winger David Strettle is just at the start of his career, but the Harlequins star has already experienced enough incidents to write a book.
His lightning bursts down the wing have earned him comparisons to a young Jason Robinson. And Strettle has rarely failed to show just why he is one of England's brightest prospects. Even before the switch to the Harlequins in 2006, he was already making waves at the Rotherham Earth Titans, the team he made his Premiership debut with.
But the best, and the worst, were both still to come.
A regular on England's sevens squad right through the 2005-06 IRB World Seven Series, the rookie from Cheshire would earn a surprise call up to the England squad for their Six Nations game against Ireland in 2007, coincidentally due to an injury to Robinson.
In an interview with XPRESS while attending the Etihad Harlequins Rugby School in Abu Dhabi, Strettle recalled his arrival on the big stage. “I had been playing for [Harlequins] for six months. I was playing well and got a call for England because Jason had injured his neck in training. So I ended up playing in the Six Nations,'' he said.
“[Jason] is someone I watched when I was growing up. To be likened to people like Jason Robinson- anyone who has seen him play will know that's a compliment,'' he added.
England crashed to a 43-13 defeat against the Irish on the day but on a personal note, it was a special game for Strettle who celebrated his debut with his team's only try. “That was the icing on the cake,'' he said smiling.
But the tide of fortune swung as quickly as one of Strettle's darting runs when he suffered the first of three metatarsal injuries which ruled him out of the 2007 World Cup.
“It's very hard to come to terms seeing your mates represent your country in a World Cup final and you're missing out,'' he said. “I don't think I'll ever be happy with that. But it's happened now. I'm still lucky that hopefully I got another World Cup in me, possibly two, you never know. If at the end of my career I never played in a World Cup and I never would have a chance again then I would be pretty disappointed.''
Strettle has also made headlines off the rugby pitch albeit for the wrong reasons. He was alleged to have had a one-night fling with part time model Sophie Lewis while on tour to New Zealand back in June. He was cleared in a subsequent RFU investigation although not before receiving a warning.
“It's never nice to have things written about you which aren't true. And it was great it was cleared up in the end. In rugby you answer your critics on the pitch and that's all you want to do as a sportsmen. As long as you keep doing that it will be all right,'' he said.
