Allan Bateman

Allan Bateman is a rarity among rugby players. He has succeeded in both codes, capped by Wales in rugby union before joining Warrington in 1990 and enjoying six successful years in rugby league. He broke into the Great Britain side before succeeding in the hardest finishing school of all, Australia. Bateman returned to union at the age of 30 and within months was playing for Wales. He toured South Africa with the 1997 Lions and in 2001 he had the distinction of being the oldest player to appear in the Six Nations Championship during which he celebrated his 36th birthday and rejoined his old club Neath on a two-year contract. Bateman was a promising schoolboy footballer who had his heart set on playing for Manchester United before his mother put her foot down. An avid rugby supporter, she told her son that he would only receive a new pair of football boots if he gave up soccer for rugby. The rest is history. Bateman played for his home-town club of Maesteg on the wing before moving to Neath who were at that time the leading club in Wales.
He was capped in 1990, but no sooner had he made his mark on international rugby than he surprisingly switched codes, within days of being approached by Warrington. In those days, there was no way back for union players who turned professional, but that changed in 1995 when the game became open and Bateman joined Richmond from Cronulla. He tells of the torment at the club when it went broke less than three years later and how misfortune turned to triumph for him when he won the Heineken Cup with Northampton. Bateman is a player genuinely respected throughout the two worlds of rugby. Calm in the face of adversity, he appears laid-back but he became known as the "Clamp" in his rugby league days because of the ferocity of his tackling. He has been playing first-class rugby for 17 years and shows no sign of slowing down. As a wry observer during what has been a tumultuous period for the union code, he has many a tale to tell.