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'Fearns is in the middle laying people out like Neo in The Matrix'
By Liam Heagney
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.”
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Latest Comments
Great to see the biggest clash between the Boks and ABs. The Boks have a better replacement bench and a developing squad for RWC 2027. The ABs could have won but for poor penalty kicks from DMac and a bad decision from Scott Barrett to kick for touch and not at the poles. Le Roux should be pensioned off and either Fassi or Willemse when fit play fullback. Sacha must not try to be too fancy but has great potential. Pollard is still the best 10. Hopefully Libbok gets his chance to play in Argentina. Etsebeth and Marx enjoyed immense games. The ABs are a work in progress but they require better forward like those of old AB teams.
Go to commentsThey also use a far more consistent scale.
Rugby pass seem to have a different scale for each player based on the authors expectations or how much he likes them.
Can't fathom how Moodie and Reece both were a 3.
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