Thursday, October 13, 2011The CitizenFollow
NATHAN Charles came to Kingsholm for a life experience.

The 22-year-old Australian leaves Gloucester this week with so much more.


Nathan Charles
The Western Force front-rower could have spent the last month resting before embarking on another punishing Super Rugby pre-season.

Charles has never done anything by halves though.

The free-running hooker wanted a real test, an unforgiving baptism of fire in the Northern Hemisphere's bullish pack ways.

He admits he got all that and more in his Kingsholm loan, and leaves a better player because of it – with hopes high he might find his way back to Gloucester one day in the future.

The world's only professional rugby player with cystic fibrosis, Charles has had a profound effect on his Gloucester team mates.

The man himself is constantly low-key about living with a condition that means he has a projected life span of 37 years.

He gave a talk to his short-term team mates last week that certainly had a few people thinking.

But as he heads back to Western Force and into pre-season with next to no down time, he will just do as always – and focus on the rugby.

Admitting he exceeded expectations in his short Kingsholm tenure, he explained: "I definitely go back a better player.

"The opportunity and experiences I've had here I will never forget, and definitely take back with me what I've learned over here with Gloucester.

"To be honest when I first came over I didn't think I'd be playing at all, I just thought I would be covering injuries.

"And the first three games, straight into it, really enjoyed it. I got an opportunity to start and I really enjoyed it.

"That's something I'll definitely cherish for the rest of my life.

"Hopefully sometime in the future I'll get another chance in the Cherry and Whites.

"I've got two and a bit weeks before I start pre-season, so if I hadn't been here I would have had a four to six week rest, but if I had the time again I wouldn't have done anything differently.

"I've loved my time here, I've really enjoyed the boys' company and the coaching staff have been fantastic as well."

The pressure of relegation does not loom over Super Rugby the way it shadows everything in England, and so Charles admitted that extra strain takes its toll on Premiership rugby style.

But he feels he has been able to take advantage: to improve his set-piece and tackle-area work, and toughen up a touch in the process.

Keen to keep improving his tight game when he gets back into the Western Force swing, he admitted the differences between the Premiership and Super 15 remain fairly pronounced – to the ultimate benefit of the global game.

"Obviously the weather is different," he continued.

"The pressures of the competition are different, I think the relegation prospect makes the competition very intense and that's why teams are very defensively-based.

"Also the mentality towards set-piece. They use it as an attacking weapon, which is something I've really grown to love.

"Then at the breakdown, over here you probably get away with a bit more, which I like, and you've really got to work hard for your ball at the breakdown.

"So those are the three main things that I find different.

"And they are three things I can definitely take back and use to improve my game at Western Force next year.

"It is a cutthroat business, it provides some very exciting footy. It's a tough debate, but it's what makes the Premiership so special.

"It has relegation and you have to perform. You can't go out and lose every game and just think well I'm going to be here next year.

"I do like the aspect that you have to perform, and the pressures of that, but in saying that people's livelihoods are at stake and that's not a nice thing to think of.

"The game of footy is something you have to go out and love to play, and hopefully that doesn't change through the pressures of relegation."

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co....ail/story.html