'Fearns is in the middle laying people out like Neo in The Matrix'

Ex-England lock Dave Attwood has named Carl Fearns, his former Bath teammate, as the hardest player he has ever come up against. The pair were teammates at The Rec for four seasons before the back-rower quit for a hugely successful stint at Lyon. He is now back in the Gallagher Premiership at Newcastle and Attwood, who is rejoining Bath next season from Bristol, didn’t hesitate to name him as the toughest rugby bloke ever. 

Appearing on the latest episode of RugbyPass Offload, the hugely entertaining Attwood regaled with numerous insightful stories from his respected playing career such as Sam Burgess’ year at Bath, Gavin Henson’s infamous night out on a team social and so on. 

He also named Fearns as the hardest player he has ever came up against. “He has got no off button. He is the kind of bloke who you’d whack him with a bar and you’d be like, ‘Yeah, I’ve f***in done him there’ and he’s still coming. 

“He and Ryan Caldwell once went out to a pub together in the middle of Bath, just the two of them. Just went to the pub, mates going for a beer. And they had a fight outside the pub to decide who was harder. 

“It wasn’t like they were goaded on the by the lads. It was just the two of them. Ryan Caldwell and Carl Fearns had a fight at a pub in Bath just because ‘I’m f***in tougher than you are. No, you’re not’. 

“I remember a story about him up in Sale, him and (Anitelea) Tuilagi beating the f*** out of all the bouncers, like 15 bouncers at a nightclub have kind of come in and Fearns is just one, another one, another one and there are bouncers falling all over the place. Fearns is in the middle just laying people out like Neo in The Matrix.”

It was Fearns who knocked out Henson on their Bath team social in 2013. “At one point the whole Bath squad was chasing him around Bath. A bit like Football Factory, he was shouting abuse and running away and then we were in this bar and he said something to Carl Fearns and Fearns wasn’t having that. Out like a light.”