“I CAN’T end my rugby playing on that,” admitted Bradford & Bingley replacement Phil Greaves, who turned 47 last month.
Greaves, who has had a storied career, came on for the last seven minutes of their 20-10 derby home defeat to Bramley Phoenix in Counties Two Yorkshire.
Greaves added: “I was hoping to get a bit longer than that, and that would have been my last game if that had happened.
“My body has taken a hammering over the years from when I played professionally and for Bradford & Bingley through the glory years.
“The game was very physical then and it was completely different to where they are now as a rugby club, but I want at least one more game before the season finishes and maybe get 20 or 30 minutes, even though that would mean me not walking for a week.”
Musing on his rugby life, the centre with the booming left foot, who went on to represent England Under-19s, Midlands and the East Midlands, said: “I started at Baildon when I was six and moved to Bradford & Bingley when I was 10.
“Then I went professional at Northampton in 1997 and was there for three years behind three international centres, but they guaranteed me Premiership starts at West Hartlepool.
“Then they had financial difficulties so I went to Rotherham in the Premiership and played for England Counties against both Australia, who I scored a try against at Welford Road, and South Africa.
“I then realised that I wasn’t going to play for the full England team so I decided to go semi-pro and get a job, and Otley approached me and (Bingley’s) Simon Binns and we both signed for them from Rotherham and we finished second in the Championship and had three very successful years.
“And then Nick Cummins got in touch with me and said ‘Why don’t you come to Bradford & Bingley?’ and I enjoyed 10 great years here.”
Greaves, who is involved in the hobbycraft and paints business, which often means that he is in Turkey, was playing for the Bees when they were much more successful than now, though he admitted: “It is still a great club but it just needs to find its soul again.
“I do struggle for time with my job, but I want to spend a bit more time down here.
“We had six players playing against Bramley who were vets or at least 35 years plus - my brother Ben, myself, Roger Raper, Rob Woodhead, Bryn Adamson and Ali Macdonald, and we all want to help.
“The spirit is there, the pitch is always in great condition thanks to Mark Heap and there are plans in the pipeline through Lee Craven to develop the ground, but that is a few years off.
“That then might be an incentive for new players to come down to a new clubhouse but we are probably four or five players light.
“We are fortunate to have these facilities but a lot of people in Bingley don’t know that we are here. We need to at least be living another league up, but it needs more commitment from the younger lads.”
As for the match itself, Greaves said: “We didn’t come to the party and it was probably our worst performance of the season.
“They were there for the taking but Bramley did defend well without offering anything in attack.
“We gave away too many penalties, some for backchat, showed ill discipline and just let ourselves down, and that has been a theme for the season and it needs to be massively improved.
“What went right was that we dominated the scrum and I thought that we were very unlucky with some of the scrum calls from the referee, who wasn’t great for both teams.”
Greaves added: “It has been very difficult for Ali to field the same team every week due to a lack of consistency, and next season things need to change.
“Saturdays used to be rugby Saturdays when I played regularly, but unfortunately that is no longer the case, things have changed massively and lads want to do different things on a weekend, which makes it difficult for Ali and his coaching staff.
“We don’t pay money anymore but we are unfortunate in that we are competing for the same players with about 10 different clubs, such as Bradford Salem, Old Brodleians and Keighley, who are above us whereas before we were way above those clubs.
“If they have the option to go elsewhere for money then they will, but at least we have stemmed the bleeding in terms of relegation and hopefully next season we will have a couple of players coming in as well as some players who used to play down here.
“We need to push for promotion and stay in a league where we don’t need to pay players but they can still enjoy their rugby.”
After a minute’s silence to remember Bingley stalwart Simon Dibb, Bramley kicked off in glorious sunshine towards Dowley Gap and dominated the opening 20 minutes.
No 8 Tony Cowley almost put flanker Callum Worsnop over as the Bees struggled to get into the visitors’ half and it was only fitting that they went ahead after 25 minutes via Worsnop, who broke through some weak home tackling to score and convert.
However, a superb offload from flanker Oli Leadbeater, the hosts’ man of the match, put right winger Joe Priestley over six minutes later but the visitors reached half-time 13-5 to the good via two Worsnop penalties.
The Bees had come close via hooker Mat Cochrane before the interval and couldn’t make anything from the industry of No 8 Jim Nicholas in the second half.
It didn’t help matters when flanker Dave Exley was sin-binned by referee Phil Sharpe (North Yorkshire Society) in the 52nd minute, and the Bees gave away a soft try three minutes later when fly half Dom Walker’s chip was easily caught by Liam Kelly who put fellow centre Zac Smith away for a try.
Worsnop’s conversion made it 20-5 and although Adamson was adamant that he had scored a try in the 58th minute - it was ruled out for a knock on in the act of grounding - Leadbeater got his second try six minutes later after bumping off Bramley fly half James Sawyer, whose kicking from hand kept Bingley pinned back.
The Bees then almost scored another in the 73rd minute, but Bramley’s defence scrambled well to limit them to two tries and are now only one point behind Bradford & Bingley, who are eighth with Bramley ninth.